To all animal lovers
Here is a copy of an email I received recently from the RSPCA. I urge anyone who feels as strongly as I do against battery farming to sign the petition.
Many thanks
Jane

Dear Supporter,

Although 86 per cent of the British public say battery cages are cruel, the government has announced that it will not consider banning battery cages until the European review of welfare standards for laying hens in 2005.

We believe this is too late. By 2005, around 43 million hens will have spent their lives in battery cages and if the UK government fails to ban cages beyond 2005, millions more will continue to suffer every year. Germany has banned battery cages and we believe the UK should too.

We are currently preparing a powerful case against the government delay on a battery cage ban. We need your help to reach others who feel as strongly as you that battery cages should be banned in the UK.

Please forward this e-mail to friends and family asking them to sign our online petition at:

http://www.rspca.org.uk/eggs

Thank you for your continued support.

With best wishes,

Julie Briggs
RSPCA Campaign Co-ordinator

I've signed, but I also get cross at some of the supermarkets for still selling them! As far as I am aware, M&S is the only one that only sells free range, and only uses free range in it's ready to eat food

You're quite right , but the supermarkets will keep selling them as long as people keep buying them. There are of course lots of 'hidden' battery eggs used in ready made products like mayonaise, cakes, biscuits, quiches etc etc. You're quite right too about M&S selling products made with free range eggs.
MacDonalds use only free range eggs too.
Thanks for signing.
We all need to vote with our purses too.
Jane

Jane

i didn't realise McD's only use free range, I don't suppose the chickens are though :(
We tend to favour Burger King, apparently the chickens are treated better by them, how true that is though I'm not sure, although I only eat the veggie Whopper the kids like the chicken nuggets (nothing to do with the Thunderbirds toys they are giving away!)

hayley

I'm afraid I have to agree with Jane here. If everyone stopped buying battery eggs then they wouldn't be produced plain and simple! I stopped buying them since I moved out of home about 11 years ago! Made me feel better thats for sure.
Bec

I know what you mean Bec, I would love to be a veggie, but I am a fussy cow so I'm finding it really difficult, we no longer eat red meat, and all the chicken we eat is organic (as are most of our fruit and veg). It's not really good enough (IMHO) but at least the animals get some freedom and decent food. And yes it does make you feel better - although I do find myself preaching to others (about recycling too, I'm a nagging cow as well as a fussy one! :))

Hayley

There is only one problem, if every body stops buying battery eggs and production was halted there would be a shortage of eggs, this would then mean supermarkets would import eggs from countries where animal welfare is way below our own.

So a well managed transition rather than a ban on battery cages to free range egg production in this country would, I think, be the best way forward.

I bet that battery eggs sold in the supermarket make up a hell of a lot more than 14% of the sales. So I wonder how many of that 86% of the public are going 'I think battery farming is cruel, but I'm a real tightwad and want cheap eggs'. I had to abuse my mother constantly for years before she stopped buying 'cheap' eggs (she wouldn't dare now, it's just not worth the twining she gets from me, lol). If the price difference between free range and battery wasn't so large, it would be easier to get Joe Public to switch - unfortunately, I don't see how the gap can be closed, the supermarket will always want to keep its punters by being as cheap as poss, and its easier to do that with battery eggs. A ban on battery cages in this country won't change much if the public doesn't change its buying habits, cheap eggs will simply be imported, and the problem will just be moved rather than fixed.

what people rarely seem to understand, is exactly what "freerange" eggs in the supermarket means!!!!! It means bu**er all!!!
I am involved with several "freerange" units....commercial ones...not the dozen hens in the back yard like I have. You have a huge shed containing 5000 hens, with 6 popholes, each about six inches wide. it doesnt take Einstein to work out that very few hens ever get to see the outside. The ones that do step outside have the luxury of a strip of grass about 20 feet by 6 feet....with no grass left on it!
It is alwaysthe same 20 or 30 birds that go outside, the other 4970 stay indoors, in a crowded shed with virtually no space or perching. Just like a battery farm infact!!!The birds are fed the same commercial diet that the battery hens are fed, so i always laugh when I hear people say they can tell the difference...like hell you can!!!
The only eggs that are different are ones like my hens lay. They have access to grass, garden, soil and receive no commercial laying pellets (food) atall. All their food is what they have scratched up for them selves. now THATS the way an egg should taste.

Aren't those barn eggs Sam?
The free range eggs I get off a local farmer tend to be really odd shapes with occasionally two yolks inside and usually covered in s**t and feathers! They also go off quicker!
Lara x

No, with barn eggs, no chickens at all have the opportunity to go outside - no 'pop-holes'. The only nice eggs are the ones like we used to have - chickens in your own garden, being fed organic grain and anything they could find. Delicious!!!

Ah! Saw a documentary about barn eggs a while back. They aren't any better with hens jammed in so much that they were having to stand on each other. Some pecked to ribbons :(
Disgraceful :(
Lara x

Barn eggs are still better than battery eggs, though. Although the chickens are horrendously overcrowded, they can at least stretch their wings.

Anyone who has kept outdoor hens knows what an intricate social system they have - these poor commercial things are terribly deprived.It's as bad, if not worse, with pigs; they are as intelligent as dogs - would we keep dogs in those conditions?

But it's not fair to handicap our farmers by banning this unless we are also going to ban the import of eggs/meat produced under these same unacceptable conditions abroad. And will the EU allow that? Will it b*****y.

With my last puppy came the luxury of truly freerange eggs.

Now Christopher wants to go see xxxx so we can "go and collect the eggs mummy"!

Stuff the dogs lets collect eggs

errrmmmmmmm i take offence at the tightwad comment further up the page. I totally disagree with battery farming etc but unfortunately i am a single parent with limited means - which reflects in what i am able to buy in the supermarket with their extremely inflated prices for such foods.

Nikki

I agree.

I'm lucky to live in an area where free range eggs are cheap and easy to obtain, but the prices the supermarkets charge are ourageous.

If the tightwad commenter didn't like the eggs provided by her mother why didn't she buy her own?

Hehehe, I'd have a job nicking eggs from my mother, given that she lives 74 miles away! But she was one of those 'tightwads' I was going on about, in that she believes battery farming to be cruel, but would rather turn a blind eye and pay less, even though she can well afford to give Mr Tesco the extra 4p an egg that it costs. So I totally emotionally blackmailed her until she gave in. I have been buying my own eggs for the best part of twenty years, and even when I was unemployed, I made the decision to pay more and eat fewer eggs, because how else is any change going to be brought about? The RSPCA says "it is up to consumers to exert pressure....", but they really aren't! Compassion in World Farming did a survey of supermarkets a couple of years ago, and to take Tesco's which is where I go, only 20% of their egg sales were from non-caged hens. While I appreciate that for a minority of the population, there is a real cost implication to consider, what about the other 75% of the population who earn more than 50% of the average UK income (ie more than around £10K, which incidentally puts my dear ole ma below the poverty line too)? I have no idea whether supermarket free range eggs taste good, bad or indifferent, having never eaten a 'real' free range egg - to be honest I don't think there's much difference in the quality of the different types of 'supermarket' egg, but it is the animal welfare issue I'm concerned about rather than the flavour and goodness. To speak for myself (after all, that's all any of us can do), I'd sooner eat 2 eggs rather than 3 and hope that my 'consumer pressure' might one day have some effect. Not deliberately trying to offend anyone in particular, and for those who REALLY can't afford 24p a box extra, my apologies.

Lara, double yokers can be hereditary, but normally dy's and mis-shapen eggs are due to very young birds laying their 1st few eggs or, occassionally, to a trace element/vitamin deficiancy...nothing what soever to do with free range!

Have to agree with Sam here, the only true free range chickens are those owned either privately or by very small concerns. I'm lucky enough to have someone nearby who has chickens in a field dotted with triangular mesh runs for night time. He has about 200 chicken and can only produce enough eggs to keep the local butcher supplied, nowhere enough for any of the major supermarkets. It's cost intensive too so this is obviously reflected in the price.

Ingrid

another thought.
The battery hen knows only its own environment, it has regular warmth, food, safety, water and knows no fear from predators.

Out door hens like mine have to work hard to get their food. if it rains they get wet, if its freezing they get very cold & they are scared witless everytime the fox passes by (& helps himself) or the hound pups decide to round them up for fun, or RAF jets go overhead.

Who is best off?

According to the EU we are not supposed to be able to buy eggs of the wrong shape and size anymore!!!:(

I'm delighted to see this discussion on free range eggs. I am veggie, but sometimes I think it would be better to eat free range meat than battery eggs, as at least the meat has had a quality of life and then is killed, whereas the battery hens have a horrible life from the time they hatch.I've noticed that the co-op lables it's products with 'this product is made with eggs from caged birds' which is very honest and may make peolpe think twice about buying them.
I agree with the poster who wonders what sort of life 'free range' hens have ,but you can only do so much and non of us can change the world overnight. We all have to do what we can and what we feel comfortable with. I'm lucky enough to get my eggs from hens I can see running round the field. £1.50 a doz.
I also agree with the poster who said she would rather eat 2 FR eggs than 3 battery eggs, the same applies to cheap meat, after all most of us eat far too much protein anyway.
Have you all signed the petition?
Jane