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Life Sentence, No Parole

Like over 95% of egg-laying hens in the United States, hens at Weaver Bros. Egg Farm are imprisoned in crowded battery cages (long rows of wire cages holding an average of seven). Hens live confined in such cages until their violent deaths without seeing the sun or fulfilling their most basic urges, such as walking freely, dust bathing, foraging, and sunbathing. The battery cage frustrates every natural instinct. These naturally clean animals are reduced to living in the excrement of their cage mates.

Constant rubbing against the wire cages, continuously being assaulted by the trampling of other hens, and having their feathers pecked by other birds, leave many of the hens naked from feather loss. MFA investigators discovered countless hens suffering from major damage to their primary and secondary flight feathers.

Forcing a naturally physical bird to spend her life in a cramped and stationary position causes numerous other health problems such as muscle degeneration, poor blood circulation, osteoporosis, and foot and leg deformities.

“(H)ens are shown in filthy conditions in overcrowded cages. Many of the hens are severely de-feathered. In others the feathers are badly damaged and soiled. The level of hygiene is appalling. It is simply unbelievable that a food product for human consumption is being produced here. The overcrowding causes stress and the lack of feathers means that the birds skin is at high risk of injury from pecking and scratching.” --Dr. Ian J.H. Duncan, Professor of Poultry Ethology at the University of Guelph

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