Rescue of Battery Hens in Tasmania

According to a release from the Australian Action Animal Rescue Team a seven-member team broke into PURE FOODS, Tasmania’s largest battery hen producer on July 8, 2000. The ammonia and noxious fumes overpowered the team when entering the buildings, causing burning eyes, sore throats and difficulty in breathing. The hens all had severely mutilated beaks, making it very difficult for them to eat.

Later that same day the rescuers approached a supposedly free-range egg-producing operation southwest of Hobart, owned by the same company. This operation had somehow gained approval by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). The rescue team and the media were refused permission to view the hens, who had been de-beaked by the same contractor. The hens themselves were confined to a big warehouse type shed with small popholes leading to a yard, which looked unused.

The intensive media attention revealing the horrible conditions in which these hens are kept put the authorities under pressure. A meeting of Government, industry and certain representatives of animal welfare groups was called, but no initiatives were added that would make any noticeable difference to the millions of hens that are enduring so much suffering in their tiny cages. Banning battery cages was not even considered. The executive director for the Australian Egg Industry Association, Hugh McMaster, and RSPCA President, Hugh Wirth, drew up a draft agreement on hen housing, proposing to phase out certain cages and increase the floor space of a standard cage by 20% at some future time. The plight of the laying hens continues unabated.

Photo, a debeaked hen not only has a difficult time eating, she is also in constant pain due to the drastic procedure.