PETA: Cage-free egg production is not more humane

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which opposes consumption of all animal products, has published a paper contending that cage-free egg production systems are no better and in some cases worse than conventional egg facilities. 

“Despite marketing claims, stocking density, poor building design, and flock size in industrial cage-free systems limit high-quality expression of a full range of natural behaviors, such as the ability to stretch and preen wings, roost, scratch, peck, forage, dust-bathe, socialize, and more,” the paper says.

“Cage-free environments involve most of the same abuses found in conventional housing, such as permanently damaging the sensitive tips of hens’ beaks by searing or burning them off with a blade or infrared light and inducing molting to maximize a hen’s egg production. It similarly depends on the cruelties of industrial hatchery and genetic selection to maximize production and exploit hens’ bodies to their biological limits and beyond,” the PETA paper says.

A spokesman for the United Egg Producers, which represents all egg production methods, said the group has “nothing to share at this time.”