Cracking the Egg Industry
A COK Undercover Investigation

For nearly every person in the United States, one egg-laying hen is confined in a tiny battery cage in a metal, windowless warehouse. She is kept in a wire cage the size of a filing drawer with up to nine other birds, unable to see sunlight, touch earth, or even freely stretch her wings. Suspended above thousands of pounds of manure, she breathes air heavy with ammonia and toxins. Many hens around her—approximately one out of ten—die from disease and infection, or dehydration and strangulation, trapped in the wires of the cages.

She must live with their decomposing bodies. And if she, too, falls ill or becomes entangled in the wires, unable to access food or water, she won’t receive any veterinary care or human intervention at all because it’s cheaper for egg production facilities to let her languish and die.

When she’s less than two years old, her battered body slows down, no longer able to produce the unnatural number of eggs the industry expects from her. She’s ripped from her cage and trucked to her death.

Ten hens must live in this one cage. They barely have room to turn around or stretch a single wing, let alone exercise or roam.

The Cruelty of Battery Cages

It’s impossible to imagine what life is like for the 300 million egg-laying hens hidden away in U.S. battery cage facilities. They are victims of arguably the cruelest form of factory farming in modern animal agribusiness. Indeed, as battery cages are increasingly spotlighted as an inherently abusive agricultural practice, the European Union has banned the use of conventional battery cages by 2012, and some countries have outlawed all cages for laying hens.

On this side of the Atlantic, the U.S. food industry has made minimal changes—but changes nonetheless—to make less inhumane the treatment of egg-laying hens. This pre-emptive strike of allotting a bit more space per animal is the industry’s last-ditch effort to stave off the time when U.S. factory farmers will be under direct fire for its cruel abuses of these birds. Recent conferences bringing together hundreds of agribusiness representatives have addressed animal welfare concerns and debated how the industry could do damage control or buy more time before the inevitable: battery cage bans in the United States.

Egg factory farms confine an average of eight hens in wire, filing drawer-sized battery cages, stacked one on top of another and down rows typically the length of one to two football fields inside a windowless shed.

What Egg Producers Hide, COK Exposes

This hen’s wing is trapped on the wires of her cage, preventing her from drinking or eating.

The U.S. egg industry doesn’t want people to learn about the incredible frustration, pain, and mistreatment of these sensitive birds, knowing that once compassionate consumers learn the reality, we won’t tolerate so much cruelty just for a morning omelet. So the industry’s gone to great lengths to keep images in our minds of clucking hens pecking around a picture-perfect barnyard. Much to the industry’s dismay, COK’s three investigations in just 18 months of battery cage facilities in Maryland have shattered that illusion for hundreds of thousands of consumers.

Exposé #1: Ise–America, Spring 2001

In April and May 2001, COK investigators documented horrific cruelty at International Standard of Excellence–America and rescued eight hens. A Washington Post exclusive on the findings of the investigation described the severe overcrowding of sick and injured hens, featherless and despondent, and helped publicize the plight of egg-laying hens. COK produced Hope for the Hopeless, a video documentary about our investigation.

Exposé #2: County Fair Farms, Spring 2002

Some hens manage to escape from the battery cages, only to fall into the manure pits below, unable to access food or water.

On the one-year anniversary of the open rescue at Ise-America, COK investigators culminated a two-month investigation at County Fair Farms and left the egg factory farm with dozens of hours of undercover video footage, hundreds of photographs, and ten hens. The Baltimore Sun printed “Group Seeks Improvement of Chicken-Farm Conditions,” and many shocked consumers contacted COK for more information on egg-free eating.

Exposé #3: Red Bird Egg Farms

From August through November 2002, COK investigators made numerous visits to Red Bird Egg Farms, an egg production facility in Millington, Md. The findings of egregious animal cruelty, filthy and unsanitary conditions, and utter disregard for the welfare of hundreds of thousands of hens were not unexpected. This most recent COK investigation once again exposed the typical mode of business within the egg industry: animal cruelty is the norm, not the exception.

Hens who die while in factory farms are discarded like trash.

On November 20, 2002, COK investigators went to Red Bird Egg Farms one last time to document in videos and photos the suffering of battery caged hens, and left with ten hens.

After the rescued birds received veterinary care and were placed in safe homes, free from the misery of factory farming, news of COK’s latest undercover investigation was broadcast around the world.

The cyst covering half of this hen’s face is so heavy, she cannot lift herself without support.

Starting with a December 4, 2002 exclusive on the front page of The New York Times National section, more than 75 media outlets including CNN, The Baltimore Sun, The San Francisco Chronicle, the U.K.’s Guardian, the two largest papers in Korea, and dozens of television stations and online news sites picked up the story of our horrendous findings and made consumers question whether our taste for eggs was worth the pain these animals must endure.

Visitors flocked to COK’s website, traffic more than tripling, and requests for our free Vegetarian Starter Guide skyrocketed. COK’s investigation of battery cage cruelty drew more attention to the suffering of egg-laying hens than any other advocacy effort.

Rescued!

A COK investigator offers a rescued hen some water before they leave the egg factory farm.

For the first time in her life, this rescued hen feels sunlight on her back and touches the earth.

Weary from life in a battery cage, these two factory farm survivors walk together in their new home.

Making a Difference

Each caring individual asking what can be done to help the 300 million hens confined in battery cages at this very moment was encouraged to keep pressure on the egg industry:

Leave eggs off your shopping list. The best way to help egg-laying hens is to pull financial support from the egg industry. By refusing to buy eggs, we take a stand against animal abuse.

Explore vegetarian eating. Laying hens aren’t the only animals who suffer for our dinner. Cows, chickens, turkeys, pigs, and other animals lose their lives for our taste buds. Learning more about compassionate eating is a wonderful—and delicious—way to help those animals we call food. Request your free copy of COK’s Easy Vegan Recipes collection and let your mouth water!

Visit COK’s complete online photo gallery and encourage friends and family to see for themselves the findings of our latest investigation.

Pass on what you’ve learned. Only by letting others know about the misery egg-laying hens are forced to endure will we bring about large-scale change in their lives. By keeping this issue of The Abolitionist moving and passing it on when you’ve finished, you can share with friends, families, co-workers, neighbors—anyone and everyone—what you know about the cruel treatment of these animals.

Write your legislators. It’s long past time for egg-laying hens in the United States to receive even the most basic protections. Demand that your legislators take a stand against animal cruelty by banning battery cages and hold U.S. egg producers accountable for their abuses, just as so many European countries have done.

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