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Egg-laying hens live in horrific conditions. Washington state just passed a law to change that.
Cages smaller than a sheet of paper are out. Perches and dust baths are in.
On Wednesday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed a bill setting welfare requirements for egg-laying hens — the strongest such bill ever to pass a state legislature. By 2023, it will be illegal to sell eggs in Washington if the hens were raised in excessively small cages. The law will affect about eight million hens each year.
The Washington law follows up on the success of ballot measures in California and Massachusetts, which imposed similar requirements. The Humane Society of the United States has spearheaded campaigns like this one in more than a dozen states, and in the past few years, these campaigns have started to get results.
Why is this a big deal? Because millions of birds live on factory farms producing eggs, and the conditions they’re kept in are pretty terrible. We’re finally making progress towards improving those conditions.
There are many ways to raise egg-laying hens on a factory farm. One method, battery cages, keeps each hen in an area about 67-76 square inches big (that’s approximately the dimensions of an iPad). Birds show a lot of distress under those conditions, tending to injure themselves, lose their feathers, and end up covered with cuts and bruises.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/5/10/18564455/washington-jay-inslee-hens-animal-cruelty?utm_campaign=vox&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
On Wednesday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed a bill setting welfare requirements for egg-laying hens — the strongest such bill ever to pass a state legislature. By 2023, it will be illegal to sell eggs in Washington if the hens were raised in excessively small cages. The law will affect about eight million hens each year.
The Washington law follows up on the success of ballot measures in California and Massachusetts, which imposed similar requirements. The Humane Society of the United States has spearheaded campaigns like this one in more than a dozen states, and in the past few years, these campaigns have started to get results.
Why is this a big deal? Because millions of birds live on factory farms producing eggs, and the conditions they’re kept in are pretty terrible. We’re finally making progress towards improving those conditions.
There are many ways to raise egg-laying hens on a factory farm. One method, battery cages, keeps each hen in an area about 67-76 square inches big (that’s approximately the dimensions of an iPad). Birds show a lot of distress under those conditions, tending to injure themselves, lose their feathers, and end up covered with cuts and bruises.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/5/10/18564455/washington-jay-inslee-hens-animal-cruelty?utm_campaign=vox&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter