The Humane Society and the United Egg Producers do not usually see eye to eye. The Humane Society of the United States is one of the largest animal welfare groups in the country. The United Egg Producers (UEP) represent the interests of 80% of the egg producing farms in America. The two are the Batman and the Joker, the North and South Korea, the Hasselbeck and O'Donnell of the egg industry. As Paul Shapiro, the Senior Director of Farm Animal Protection at the Humane Society put it, "These are two groups that have been political adversaries for many years; they have been essentially at war." If they had announced that they were agreeing on the best shape of pasta, it would have been news.
But today, they announced that they have agreed to support a sweeping new set of regulations for the egg industry—which will be the first federal regulations of any kind for the treatment of farmed animals and the first federal legislation on animal cruelty in 30 years. That isn't big—that's colossal.
The regulations, if they are approved in Congress, will ban the use of "battery cages" in the raising of egg-laying hens. At any given moment, 250 million hens live in battery cages, which are tiny and overcrowded. Most cram four chickens in an 18"x20" cage. (Though 50 million hens, outside the purview of the UEP, live an average of 7.5 chickens to a cage.) The hens don't have room enough to move; all they can do is eat, lay eggs, sleep and defecate.
The new regulations will gradually replace battery cages with "enriched colony cages" in the 18 years after passage. The new habitats will give each chicken twice as much floor space, with structures for nesting, scratching, and perching.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/07/humane-society-united-egg_n_892682.html
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