Animal Cruelty Certified:
COK Undercover Investigation and Federal Petitions
Expose Egg Industry’s Deceptive Advertising

While the European Union speeds towards farmed animal welfare laws outlawing some of the worst abuses of factory farming, the U.S. egg industry is stuck in first gear, encouraging practices that don’t meet even minimal standards for less inhumane treatment.

In 2002, in an attempt to improve public relations and avert potential government regulation, the United Egg Producers (UEP) created the “Animal Care Certified” program including voluntary guidelines supposedly ensuring animal welfare. More than 80 percent of egg producers now label egg cartons with an “Animal Care Certified” logo, misleading consumers into believing the eggs come from humanely treated hens when, in fact, little could be further from the truth.

“Animal Cruelty Certified”

The UEP’s guidelines do little more than codify what has been the norm in the egg industry for years: systematic animal abuse. The “Animal Care Certified” guidelines:

• Do not prohibit the purposeful starving of hens, a common practice in the U.S. egg industry. Birds are starved for up to two weeks to induce a new laying cycle. Many of the most respected scientists in the animal agribusiness industry have spoken out against forced molting through starvation. And even McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s now refuse to buy eggs from companies that starve hens.
• Do not prohibit the “beak trimming” of chicks, a process where part of the beak of an unanesthetized bird is seared off with a hot blade. The purpose of “beak trimming” is said to be two-fold: to reduce the impact of stress-induced aggression, as well as to reduce feed costs, as birds with sore beaks eat less and “waste” less feed by pecking it into the aisles.(1) Avian expert Ian Duncan, Ph.D., writes, “There is now good morphological, neurophysical, and behavioral evidence that beak trimming leads to both chronic and acute pain.”(2)
• Do not prohibit the intensive confinement of birds in barren cages so small they cannot even flap their wings, let alone nest, roost, or dust-bathe. Michael Baxter, Ph.D., believes “the frustration of nesting motivation is likely to cause significant suffering to the hen during the prelaying period every day.”(3)
• Do not mention the treatment of male chicks. Annually in the United States, tens of millions of male chicks are ground up alive or gassed. As they cannot lay eggs and are different breeds from those raised by the meat industry, male chicks are unwanted byproducts of the egg industry.(4)

The only relatively significant change mandated by the new UEP animal welfare guidelines relates to cage space, calling for a slight increase to 67 square inches to be phased in over six years. As such, by 2008, all “Animal Care Certified” egg companies will have to provide a shed average of 67 square inches per bird, giving each hen less than a single sheet of paper of space.

Whele 67 square inches of space per hen is certainly an improvement over the prior norm of 50, the increase still does not come close to providing adequate living space for a bird. Simply to flap her wings, the average four-pound chicken physically needs a bare minimum of 290 square inches,(5) and research indicates that chickens will not even engage in wing flapping unless given much more space than that.(6) (Consider how uncomfortable a six-foot tall person would be when trying to walk in a room with a six-foot high ceiling.)

So, even this minimal amount of extra space is still grossly insufficient to allow birds to stretch their necks, flap their wings, preen, or even take a single step without touching another bird. In short, egg-laying hens are still the most intensively confined of all animals in the U.S. agribusiness industry. To label these eggs “Animal Care Certified” is a public relations scam—it deceives consumers, ignores science, and shows that the egg industry cannot be trusted to regulate itself. Consumers deserve to know the truth.

In spring 2001, COK conducted an undercover investigation at Ise-America, an egg factory farm in Maryland. Since then, the facility became “Animal Care Certified.” In spring 2003, COK investigators returned to Ise to document the “Animal Care Certified” conditions of the factory farm and the egg-laying hens. As the photos in this issue of The Abolitionist indicate, any changes are not noticeable.

On June 11, 2003, COK filed petitions with the Federal Trade Commission, Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the California Advertising Board, alleging that the “Animal Care Certified” logo on egg cartons is false advertising and should be prohibited. At the same time, COK launched EggScam.com, offering photos from our spring 2003 investigation of the “Animal Care Certified” egg farm, expert industry scientists’ opinions on animal welfare, and information for consumers to take action. In the following month, COK filed additional complaints in New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.

The egg industry should not be allowed to keep deceiving consumers.

You Can Help!

1. The best way to help laying hens is to leave their eggs out of our shopping carts. For a free Vegetarian Starter Guide for yourself or a friend, please visit TryVeg.com or call toll-free 1-866-MEAT-FREE.
2. The FDA accepts letters from individuals who support a filed petition. Please write a short letter supporting COK’s petition to prohibit egg producers from using the “Animal Care Certified” logo on their cartons. Your letter must include the petition’s docket number: 2003P-0270/CP1. Dockets Management Branch, Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Ln., Rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.
3. After COK’s correspondence with Trader Joe’s, the grocery chain agreed to remove the deceptive “Animal Care Certified” logo from its own brand of eggs. While this is a step in the right direction, the company has yet to stop selling all eggs from caged hens. Respectfully encourage Trader Joe’s to help battery-caged hens by refusing to sell their cruelly produced eggs. Trader Joe’s, 117 Kendrick St., Ste. 700, Needham, MA 02494.

References

1. “Feed savings could justify beak trimming,” Poultry Digest, March 1993: p. 6.
2. Ian J. Duncan. “The Science of Animal Well-Being.” A report from a speech in the Animal Welfare Information Center Newsletter, National Agriculture Library, 1993 (Jan.–March): 4.1, p. 5. As cited in Karen Davis’ Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs (Book Publishing Company, 1996, p. 68).
3. Michael R. Baxter. “The Welfare Problems of Laying Hens in Battery Cages,” The Veterinary Record 1994: 134, p. 618.
4. David Fraser, Joy Mench, Suzanne Millman. “Farm Animals and Their Welfare in 2000,” State of the Animals 2001, Humane Society Press, 2001, p. 90.
5. Poultry Digest, May 1990: p. 44.
6. R.H. Bradshaw, N.E. Bubier. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 1991: 31, p. 298. As cited by Baxter, p. 617.

	Customers Duped by Egg Industry’s False Advertising
In June 2003, COK randomly polled 165 D.C. egg consumers. Regarding the new UEP “Animal Care Certified” logo, 67 to 70 percent believed the label indicated that the eggs were laid by hens who were more likely uncaged, were not de-beaked without anesthesia, and were not forced molted by starvation. Ninety to 94 percent believed that giving caged hens less space than a letter-sized piece of paper (93.5 square inches), “beak trimming,” and forced molting by starvation were not “humane.” The following month, Farm Sanctuary commissioned Zogby International to determine nationwide attitudes towards the “Animal Care Certified” logo. Seventy percent of those polled found the egg industry’s label misleading, furthering COK’s argument that the logo is false advertising and should be prohibited.

	Egg Farm Disaster!
COK Investigates and Rescues Hens In February 2003, the mid-Atlantic region fell under heavy snowstorms, and so did rooftops at one of the Ise-America egg farms in Maryland. On February 20, COK received an anonymous tip about the roof collapses, trapping 300,000 hens—some crushed, others mangled—inside battery cages. Late that night, COK investigators documented the horrific conditions. The roofs of three sheds had crashed down. Many of the cages in the four-tiered sheds were flattened, hens crushed beneath metal sheeting and plywood. Other cages were smashed, and still live hens were found amidst badly rotting corpses. COK investigators left the facility that night with two rescued hens. The Baltimore Sun and D.C.’s Fox 5 News covered the story, drawing much-needed attention to the suffering hens endure to satisfy our taste for their eggs.

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