New Zealand Open Rescue

A month ago they chained themselves to the top of silos at a battery hen farm to draw attention to the plight of battery hens. Today they are nursing rescued battery hens they took during a daring rescue last night. 

Last night Deirdre Sims and Marie Brittain illegally entered a Waikato battery farm rescuing several hens and documenting appalling, but typical, industry conditions.

Ms Sims explains, “The public don't get to see what goes on inside factory farms. Breaking the law and risking arrest is the only way we can expose the cruelty that these industries go to great lengths to conceal.”

The action was taken in support of 'Person in a Cage' Carl Scott who is currently living in a cage for one month and calling for the public to make submissions to the government to ban battery cages.

“During our rescue last night we found a hen which had become trapped underneath the feed tray. She is very weak and thin, indicating she had been trapped for days unable to reach food or water. In a shed containing approximately 20, 000 hens, its not surprising that a single hen could remain trapped without farm workers noticing. She is unable to stand and it is unclear at this stage if she will be crippled for life.”

“Both Marie and I have been inside battery hen farms countless times. But time and again we are shocked and saddened by what we see. The suffering of these animals is unimaginable and unacceptable.”

“The egg industry is proposing to replace standard battery cages with so-called 'colony' cages. But for a battery hen, a cage is still a cage. Three millions hens can't walk properly, run or stretch their wings. Its not a normal life for a chicken and cages need to be banned immediately,” concludes Ms Sims.

Sims and Brittain are calling for the government to listen to calls from the public to ban all cages for layer hens including the proposed colony cage systems. The Code of Welfare for Layer Hens is open for public submissions until 29 April.

Activists from Coalition to End Factory Farming (New Zealand Open Rescue, Animal Freedom Aoteaora and the Wellington Animal Rights Network) occupied a battery hen farm in Tuakau recently. Deirdre Sims and Marie Brittain chained themselves to seven-metre high silos on the farm. Sims and Brittain undertook the action to draw attention to the cruelty inherent of factory farming.

Dozens of supporters holding banners, placards and chicken costumes were outside the farm. Sims and Brittain were prepared to stay in their position occupying the factory farm overnight but came down voluntarily after police agreed not to arrest them.

Ms Sims said, “Over the past year we have been involved in investigating many battery hen farms the across the country. What we've seen is both shocking and sadly typical of factory farms in New Zealand.”

“It is heartbreaking to see inside these sheds. You see row upon row of caged hens that are treated as nothing more than egg producing machines, unable to carry out the most basic natural behaviours such as wing stretching and walking.”

88 per cent of the 3 million layer hens in New Zealand are kept confined and suffering in cruel cages.

“Our action was not aimed at any particular farm but at the egg industry which is inherently cruel and a government which refuses to act,” says Ms Sims.

Coalition to End Factory Farming believes the new draft Code of Welfare for Layer Hens is appallingly inadequate as hens will still be confined in cages for many decades to come.

“The egg industry is proposing to introduce colony cages as a replacement for existing battery cages. But colony cages still breach welfare legislation as they do not allow hens to express their normal behaviour. A cage is a cage no matter how the Egg Producers Federation tries to spin it.”

In 2006 Parliament’s Regulations Review Committee ruled that battery cages were in breach of the Animal Welfare Act 1999.

“This means that we have illegal systems in place sanctioned by our government, purely so that these industries can continue to make a profit - this is completely unacceptable,” says Ms Sims.

“A Colmar Brunton poll showed that around 80 per cent of New Zealander's think battery cages are cruel. The public want change and, in an election year, it would pay for the government to listen.

“Until factory farming practices cease to exist, we will continue to expose animal cruelty and carry out non-violent civil disobedience actions," concludes Ms Sims.