Reading the labels
“If
people simply read the labels on egg cartons and look for
‘Certified Humane,’ ‘American Humane Certified’
or ‘Animal Welfare Approved’ claims,” said Programs
manager Sharanya Prasad in a WSPA media release, “they can be
sure that the eggs came from chickens who were humanely raised, not on
a factory farm.”
“These claims also mean the animals
were not given hormones or non-therapeutic antibiotics, were not
continuously confined and were allowed to engage in natural
behaviors,” Prasad added.
According to an article
on the website of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), egg
carton labels such as “free-range,”
“free-roaming,” “cage-free,” and
“natural” do not guarantee that the egg-laying chickens
were treated humanely.
The most humane labels
The HSUS site reports that the following two terms ensure the highest levels of animal welfare:
“Certified humane:
The birds are uncaged inside barns or warehouses but may be kept
indoors at all times. They must be able to perform natural behaviors
such as nesting, perching and dust bathing. There are requirements for
stocking density and number of perches and nesting boxes. Forced
molting through starvation is prohibited, but beak cutting is allowed.
Compliance is verified through third-party auditing. Certified Humane
is a program of Humane Farm Animal Care.
“Animal welfare approved:
The highest animal welfare standards of any third-party auditiing
program. However, there are no participating producers that sell to
supermarkets. The birds are cage-free and continuous outdoor perching
access is required. They must be able to perform natural behaviors such
as nesting, perching and dust bathing. There are requirements for
stocking density, perching, space and nesting boxes. Birds must be
allowed to molt naturally. Beak cutting is prohibited. Animal Welfare
Approved is a program of the Animal Welfare Institute.”
Industry attempts to raise standards
The United Egg Producers, an industry trade group, says via its website
that “consumers and retailers concerned about animal welfare can
now easily spot eggs produced using the United Egg Producers (UEP) new
animal care guidelines.”
Those guidelines include:
• Increased cage space per hen, which is being phased in to avoid market disruptions.
• Standards for non-feed withdrawal molting procedures based on the most current, verified scientific studies.
• Standards for trimming of chicks’ beaks, when necessary, to avoid pecking and cannibalism.
•
Maintaining constant supply of fresh feed, water and air ventilation
throughout the chicken house and monitoring for ammonia.
• Standards for daily inspection of each bird as well proper handling and transportation.
•
Availability of a new training video to instruct producer staffs on the
proper handling of chickens to avoid injury to the animals.
The new UEP guidelines do not fall within those of HSUS, WSPA, or many other animal welfare organizations.
Katerina Lorenzatos Makris is
the author of 17 novels for publishers including Avon, E.P. Dutton, and
Simon & Schuster, and hundreds of articles for publications such as
National Geographic Traveler, San Francisco Chronicle, and Veggie Life.
She wrote a teleplay for CBS and short fiction for The Bark magazine.
With coauthor Shelley Frost, she wrote Your Adopted Dog
(The Lyons Press). Holding a B.A. in Environmental Science Studies and
a lifelong interest in animal issues, she spends a lot of her time
battling a severe addiction to dogs.
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