New HSUS Investigation Exposes Cruelty at Top Egg Producers

The Humane Society of the United States released a new report today exposing the appalling animal cruelty at two of the three biggest egg producers in the country.

In February and March 2010, an HSUS investigator was employed by Rose Acre Farms and Rembrandt Enterprises, the largest egg producers in Iowa, which is the largest egg producing state in the country. Between laying hens and juvenile hens, Rose Acres keeps about five million birds in battery cages stacked four high in some locations, eight high in others. Rembrandt has about 5.5 million hens crammed into 18 battery cage sheds. All ten million plus of those animals are suffering.

Anyone reading this blog likely knows that factory farm conditions are overcrowded. But how bad is it? Rose Acres is certified by the United Egg Producers, an industry group that sets so-called "animal welfare standards," which includes a minimum amount of space per bird. That magic number is 64 square inches, which amounts to less than a piece of 8.5x11 paper, and that's where the hens spend their entire short lives. Rembrandt, which isn't certified by UEP, only gives their hens about 52 square inches. Imagine living your life on half a sheet of paper, shoulder-to-shoulder with half a dozen other people on their little sheets.

It gets worse. These birds are warehoused in complete squalor, where their untreated waste is left to pile up, attracting rats and insects. At one of the facilities, an employee said that the manure system where the young hens are kept hadn't been cleaned in two years. The ammonia levels are so bad that it causes blindness in some of the hens, and after a few days of working in the sheds with only a painter's mask for protection, the investigator experienced respiratory distress.

In the cramped cages, hens often get caught between bars or trampled, and they're left there to die. Even after they die, they're often still left in the cage. The investigator found birds that had been dead so long that they had become mummified in their cages ... right alongside the hens that continue laying eggs for human consumption.

You would think this might cause a regulation problem, but as Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of HSUS, points out, there are no federal laws, and very few state laws, to protect farm animals. It's a totally deregulated environment, left up the conscience of the farmer. But Pacelle says the problem isn't any particular employee or supervisor. "These systems are inherently inhumane. You cannot have good animal welfare by jamming 6-8 birds into a small cage that doesn't allow them to turn around, extend their wings, or engage in any normal or natural behavior."

And, with so much of egg production being automated, there are very few employees to handle millions of animals, making it impossible to address any problems that arise. One supervisor said that when disease struck at Rembrandt, they were pulling 5,000 dead birds out of the cages every day for two weeks.

People have a tendency to blame all of this cruelty on "the bottom line," that factory farms won't change because they'll start losing money. But both individual shoppers and major restaurant chains have shown that they're willing to pay more for cage-free eggs. Many factory farms have cage-free facilities alongside their battery cages to meet the demand, and they're making a mint off of it — according to industry reports, it only costs producers a penny per egg to go cage-free, so the price tag that you see at the supermarket is a reflection of what people are willing to pay.

So why does this unconscionable cruelty continue? Because it's been allowed to by the lack of regulations and the ignorance of the public. Both of those things are changing as states step up to ban battery cages and public awareness grows, thanks to the efforts of organizations like HSUS.

No one is saying that cage-free is cruelty-free. Cage-free is just as unregulated as any other farm animal production. Most cage-free hens still live in crowded conditions and aren't allowed to go outside, but they are at least able to spread their wings and move around; they get to lay their eggs in nests and aren't at risk for a slow, traumatic death caught between the bars of cages. As an individual, you can make the decision to buy locally raised eggs or go vegan. But the egg production industry is huge and it isn't going away anytime soon, so cage-free is a step in the right direction toward improving the lives of millions of hens.

You can download the full report and view some of the graphic footage from the undercover investigation on the HSUS website.

Photo credit: The Humane Society of the United States