Battery Hens Should Be Illegal

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Battery Hen should be illegal? “A hen with her wings outstretched is approximately twice the width of a typical battery cage” This direct quote should inspire pity in any emotionally stable person, but many value increased economic returns over a clean conscience, and some feel no pity at all for these poor defenceless birds. There are many social and ethical reasons why battery hen farming is wrong. In the US alone more than 452 million chickens are used for their egg laying capabilities, 99% of those spend their entire life crammed into tiny spaces which provide no space to scratch, bathe, stretch or build a nest, all 4 of the above stated things have been proven to be extremely important in the emotional and physical wellbeing of a chicken. Hens have even been proven to navigate extreme obstacle courses to get back to their nests; by depriving them of that many go crazy. Naturally chickens work well in groups of 10-90 but when over 10000 chickens are crammed into a space less than 1 by 1 kilometres the natural pecking order is disrupted and the chickens cannot establish any social hierarchy, in the confusion and frustration the chickens peck and attack each other, this give the chicken farmers “reasonable” cause to de-beak the chickens. De-Beaking is a cruel process in which two thirds of the birds beak is removed, unlike finger nails their beaks contain nerve clusters, and the birds feel immense pain, many have trouble eating because of it and continue to feel pain throughout their life. The hens keep in these cages have nothing to scratch, there have been cases where the claws have grown so long they wrap around the cage wire, preventing the hen from accessing food or water. The battery farms also have artificial lights on special timers, which are designed to induce the hens into a 24 hours laying time, this put extreme stress on the poor bird’s body,

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