April
2004
Animal
Cruelty Certified
By Paul Shapiro
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Consumers’ attitudes toward new animal welfare egg carton labeling
were recently released by the Zogby polling agency. How did the egg
industry fare? To put it mildly, consumers didn’t see a sunny
side of modern egg production and, the survey results have left the
industry’s reputation scrambled.
Two years ago, because of polls showing overwhelming public sentiment
against many cruel, yet standard, egg production practices—such
as caging birds so tightly they can’t flap their wings—the
egg industry realized it needed to appear concerned about animal welfare,
ideally without having to make significant changes. And so began a voluntary
program which would allow egg producers to label their cartons with
a deceptive logo reading “Animal Care Certified.”
The Zogby poll found that most consumers believe hens laying “Animal
Care Certified” eggs receive more humane treatment than is actually
the case. It’s not difficult to understand why.
Hens who lay “Animal Care Certified” eggs are intensively
confined in wire “battery” cages, may have parts of their
beaks burned off (without painkiller), and may be starved to the point
of losing 30 percent of their body weight in order to induce a new
laying
cycle.
Recognizing that most Americans oppose such cruelty, animal agribusiness
put its public relations machine to work. The United Egg Producers
(UEP)
convened a panel and instructed it to examine current industry practices,
while still maintaining a battery-cage system. The result was a voluntary
program which very slightly increased cage space over many years, with
the final size of 67 square inches of cage space per bird, less than
one-fourth the amount of space needed for the birds to flap their wings,
according to the UEP’s own scientific advisory panel.
When the program took effect, producers who signed began labeling their
egg cartons with an “Animal Care Certified” (ACC) logo,
giving themselves a halo of legitimacy for consumers concerned about
animal cruelty.
The ACC program not only served to cloak the industry in the veil of
animal welfare without implementing significant production changes;
it also helped address an oversupply problem which had been plaguing
egg producers with low prices for years. The editor of one industry
journal wrote in the Gainesville Times, “For years,
egg companies admitted that overproduction had been the root of the
profitability
problem, but were slow to react.”
Indeed, an article in Poultry Times entitled, “Animal
Welfare Guidelines Aid Profitability,” noted that the ACC guidelines
“have had a secondary and welcomed effect—that of increased
profitability.”
No one should oppose making living conditions on factory farms less
inhumane. But when the factory farmers use false advertising on egg
cartons to pretend that their baby steps actually make the industry
humane, no one should be fooled.
The most humane thing we can each do for laying hens is to leave their
eggs out of our shopping carts.
Paul Shapiro is the campaigns director for nonprofit animal advocacy
organization Compassion Over Killing, whose website on this issue is
EggScam.com.
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