The Egg Industry in Canada

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In the name of affordable food, millions of hens in Canada suffer each year. This September I took a stand against the Canadian Egg Industry. I no longer purchase eggs from battery hens, and have decided to unlawfully raise my own healthy, happy hens for eggs in my backyard.
The majority of laying hens in Canada are treated horribly; in fact approximately 98% of Canada’s 30 million laying hens live in battery cages. A battery cage is a wire metal cage generally 16” x 18”, and is stuffed with four to six laying hens. They can not open their wings, have no access to a perch, they can not build nests, nor do anything remotely normal for a chicken to do. In these conditions hens suffer great stress and are prone to picking feathers and cannibalism. Instead of increasing their cage size, the industry has decided to thwart the behaviour by clipping the ends of the hen’s beaks off while they are chicks. A bird’s beak is full of nerves and serves as a ‘sense’ organ for the animal, the removal would be painful and leave the bird crippled under any normal circumstance. After 1-2 years the hen is considered “spent” from laying her 300 eggs per year and is taken to slaughter for chicken by-products. She is so thin and unhealthy at this point, by-products and 25₵ wings are all she is good for. This process in itself isn’t without issue as the poor birds are hauled out of cages by their feet several at a time, then stuffed into crates for transport often resulting in broken bones in trade for efficiency. They are then hung upside down by shackles, immersed in electrified water to stun them, then have their throats cut. This is followed by a dip in scalding water to loosen feathers, some birds are still conscious at this point.

The only life they know is that of suffering.

The North American public has cried outrage for the inhumane treatment of animals in China, whereas they seem ignorant to the suffering that they support every time they purchase a carton of battery hen eggs from the store. When puppies or kittens are kept in these conditions, the general population is infuriated. Puppy mills are closed down and the operators charged with crimes, cats in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions are removed from homes, but chickens are different?

My two chickens love to be around me in the yard, they have their own personalities, they are cunning when it comes to stealing your food, and they come running and clucking whenever they see me. I consider them pets. Does a hen deserve less empathy than a dog or cat simply because we can use her for food? If anything they should be held in higher regard for giving us gifts to feed our family with.

I believe the lack of education is to blame for the general public’s complacency, after all most people will never see the inside of a barn stuffed with thousands of balding hens. If more people were faced with the reality of the Canadian Egg Industry and it’s horrible practices, more outrage would follow. Supply and demand, if the customers demand humane practices, the industry will supply.

However, in amidst the outrage, the question remains, are the customers willing to pay for those humane practices they demand? At what cost should we be entitled to eggs on our plates, $2.50/doz and a life of suffering? I took a stand and spent far more monetarily than necessary to ensure I never have to support the suffering of hens again.

Some things are more important than money.