In the lead-up to Valentine’s Day, SAFE volunteers and TV celebrity Suzanne Paul were outside a Countdown store to ask the company to show hens some love by removing ‘cage eggs’ from their shelves. Passers-by signed a message on behalf of the hens in a giant Valentine’s card that was then handed in to the manager.
Countdown is owned by Woolworths Australia who committed to stop selling cage eggs there by 2018. SAFE believes Countdown should do the same in New Zealand.
“To keep hens confined to cages, unable to carry out an array of natural behaviours, is one of the worst forms of cruelty. As a major purchaser of animal products Countdown is in a position to help improve the welfare of layer hens – and do something that their customers will support,” says Abi Izzard, Campaigns Officer. “Most Kiwis completely disagree with this animal cruelty.”
There are currently two types of cages in New Zealand as a result of the Government releasing a new welfare code for layer hens back in 2012. This said, existing standard battery cages had to be phased out by 2022 and replaced by another type of cage, the colony battery cage.
A SAFE spokesperson explains: “Hens confined to these cages spend their lives crammed inside a wire cage with barely more space than an A4 piece of paper per bird. They are unable to stretch out their wings, scratch as they would in the wild, or dustbathe, and are forced to stand on an uncomfortable, sloping mesh floor. There are approximately three million layer hens caged in New Zealand, each an individual with their own personality, and millions of their eggs are sold by Countdown each year.”
