RSPCA: No to delay on battery cage ban

Friday, 26 September 2008 12:00 AM

The RSPCA have welcomed calls made by the French Agriculture Minister not to delay the 2012 ban on conventional battery cages, despite some industry groups demanding a postponement.

Michel Barnier, French minister of agriculture, made the statement during a meeting of the European Parliament's Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals in Brussels this week.

Barnier said: "I would not like us to go back on that date. I would not like to see it postponed. That is the Council position, that battery farming should cease on that day."

The RSPCA have welcomed the fact that the Minister has clarified France's position regarding a possible delay. However, the Society have warned that even though the conventional cage ban will mark a small step forward in terms of animal welfare, when the ban does come into force eggs from caged hens will still be available, produced in so-called 'enriched' cages

Alice Clark a senior RSPCA farm animal scientist, said: "Enriched cages are little better than the notorious battery cages. Little will change from the hens' point of view, so we are calling on the Government to ban all cages and are urging consumers not to buy eggs produced from them, especially as eggs are widely available from higher welfare barn and free-range systems."

Eggs bearing the Freedom Food logo come from birds that are reared on farms inspected to strict RSPCA welfare standards and are free to move around in barn or free-range systems. The RSPCA's standards do not allow any type of battery cage - conventional or enriched.

In the conventional cage system, each hen is allocated less floor space than the size of one sheet of A4 paper. Due to the distress and suffering this can cause hens, the EU agreed to end the practice by 1 January 2012.

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For more information contact the RSPCA's Press Office on 0300 123 0244.

There are some 30 million laying hens reared each year in the UK. Of these, about 19 million are kept in battery cages.

What is wrong with battery cages?

Battery cages - whether conventional or enriched - are cruel.
Scientific evidence shows that both types of cage are unacceptable on welfare grounds, as they do not adequately satisfy most of the laying hens' basic behavioural and physical needs, such as freedom to stretch and flap their wings or carry out nesting behaviours, perch or dustbathe effectively. Caged hens can suffer from distress and frustration as a result.

Both systems allocate each bird less useable space than an A4 sheet of paper and it can be difficult for them to escape aggression from other birds.

The RSPCA does not believe that cages of any kind, even those that are well-managed, can meet the physical and behavioural needs to the same degree as alternative systems.

What are conventional battery cages?

A typical conventional battery cage holds four or five hens. The birds are enclosed on all sides by wire mesh, and the cage is barren except for food and water facilities. The birds are typically given food on moving feeders which run just outside the cage. The floor gently slopes so that when the birds lay their eggs they roll out and can be collected automatically.

What are enriched cages?

Since 2003, legislation has stipulated that any new cage systems built (in Europe) are so-called "enriched" cages. Enriched cages provide each hen with just 50cm² more useable space than conventional cages - the extra space is less than the size of a beer mat and the overall useable space per bird is still less than a sheet of A4 paper. The birds still don't have enough room to move around freely. There could be 20 or more than 100 hens in a cage. The majority of the flooring is still made of wire apart from a scratching mat and nest area, for which there is no legal minimum amount that must be provided.

Enriched cages are a step in the right direction. Whereas conventional battery cages are barren (see above), enriched cages provide the birds with limited facilities including perches, and areas for scratching and laying eggs. They have a minimum headroom of 45cm, although when hens are perching this is reduced.

The nest area is a beneficial inclusion but because its size is unspecified they are generally too small for the number of birds that use them. This means there can be competition to use the nesting area and some birds do not have the opportunity to carry out the full repertoire of nesting behaviours.

The size of the scratching mats is also not specified and they are often not big enough for the number of birds. Due to the small size of the scratching mat it is difficult to provide appropriate material and quantities so they can dustbathe properly. A recent European study found that complete dustbathing behaviours were not carried out in enriched cages.

The perches are also a positive inclusion but because of the lack of space they make it difficult for hens to move through the cages or for hens to rest undisturbed at different times of the day.

RSPCA, Wilberforce Way, Southwater, Horsham, West Sussex RH13 9RS Press office direct lines: 0300 123 0244/0288 Fax: 0303 123 0099 Duty press officer (evenings and weekends) Tel 0870 0555500 and ask for pager number 828825
Email: press@rspca.org.uk Website: www.rspca.org.uk

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