Battery cages for egg-laying hens

Every year, millions of hens endure miserable lives in small, stacked cages on factory farms. Typically, five or six hens are crowded into a single cage, roughly 16 by 18 inches, and the simplest motions, such as turning around or spreading one’s wings, become arduous tasks. Any semblance of normal behavior, including exercise, is impossible. The cages are constructed of wire, so waste falls from the upper tiers onto the chickens below. Their feathers are worn away and their necks blister from constant contact with the wire mesh as the birds stretch their necks through the cages to access food. Claws often become deformed from being constantly wrapped around wire and can become painfully embedded in the cage floor. Weaker hens are often stepped on and crushed by others because of cage floors that slope toward the food and water troughs. Suffocation, stress, and heart attacks are all too common.

Battery hens also suffer from a variety of diseases and painful conditions because of overcrowding in cages. Lack of exercise leads to osteoporosis, lameness, and broken bones. Illnesses, such as salmonella, run rampant in cages where birds cannot avoid direct contact with the diseased feces and corpses of their cage-mates. (www.peta-online.org)

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