be kind to your pecker on Valentine’s Day
Date: February 13, 2006
Humane Society asks people to have a heart by choosing certified organic eggs
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) wants consumers to help battery caged hens this Valentine’s Day by purchasing only certified organic eggs.
“26 million hens are kept in the most deplorable conditions imaginable,” says Bruce Passmore, the Farm Animal Welfare Project Coordinator. “They are crammed into a space the size of a sheet of paper - a space so small they care barely move, let alone flap their wings or perform any other natural behaviour. We hope consumers will have a heart and help end this cruelty by choosing certified organic eggs.” (Canadian video footage of a battery barn available on DVD and BetaCam SP, or at www.humanefood.ca.)
Certified organic and BCSPCA Certified eggs are guaranteed to be cage-free and to have the highest welfare standards of any commercially available egg. Birds are free to roam outdoors and given the opportunity to nest, perch, dust bathe and flap their wings.
A recent report released by the Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals documents the extensive scientific evidence that battery cages are inhumane. Even the European Union, based solely on animal welfare concerns, will ban the use of battery cages by 2012.
“No one wants to support gross cruelty,” continued Passmore “especially not on Valentine’s Day. But if you are buying eggs from caged hens, you are. Be kind to your pecker instead, choose certified organic eggs.”
For more on the Chicken Out! project, go to www.chickenout.ca.
The Chicken Out project is generously funded by the Vancouver Foundation and the late PRU Stratton.
