Published Letters and Op-Eds from
COK’s Writers Group

…and hens

The proposed changes to the WIC program—adding fruits and vegetables while reducing eggs—will offer significant benefits not only to program participants, but also to millions of animals. Behind nearly every “incredible edible egg” sold in stores today is a hen confined inside a wire cage so restrictive, she can barely move.

Polls show that the overwhelming majority of consumers find this practice unacceptable, yet few are aware of its widespread use. In fact, more than 95 percent of eggs produced in this country come from hens forced to spend their lives in wire cages. Deprived of almost everything natural to them, these birds will never build a nest or even set foot outside.

Erica Meier,
executive director,
Compassion Over Killing,
Washington, D.C.