It’s not perfect, but the executive director of the Winnipeg Humane Society is pleased that the Manitoba Egg Farmers have adopted new animal welfare standards to house chickens.
Last week, the egg farmers’ board decided all new housing facilities for laying hens in the province after 2018 must satisfy the five freedoms of animal welfare – freedom from thirst and hunger, fear and distress, discomfort, pain and disease and freedom to express normal behaviour.
“We’ve certainly been pushing this message over the years and we were happy to see the egg farmers move in this direction. Ultimately we would like cage free, but when you get the five freedoms met, that is a huge step forward. We appreciate that move,” said Bill McDonald, executive director of the Winnipeg Humane Society.
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The egg farmers’ new policy requires producers who build new cages or renovate to have either enriched cages or an alternative housing system that meets the five freedoms.
Enriched cages provide more space for each hen than battery cages, along with a perch and an area to scratch and peck.
With the new policy, Manitoba becomes the first province to mandate the five freedoms for laying hens, said Brenda Bazylewski, spokesperson for Manitoba Egg Farmers.
Bazylewski said the policy evolved out of the campaign, “We’re egg farmers, we love what we do.”
“The whole idea behind this campaign was to connect egg farmers to the general public,” she said. “What came out of that campaign was an implied promise. People said to us, well, if you love what you do … then you care about the animals that you’re looking after.”
McDonald speculated the Manitoba Egg Farmers might have been influenced by changes in American animal welfare standards.
“It’s big down there. Every state is moving towards different levels of freeing the animals from confinement systems,” he said.
Powerful U.S. corporations like McDonald’s are driving the change because they want to meet customer expectations, he said. In turn, producers want to keep the fast food companies happy.
“Most of this movement is consumer driven,” McDonald said. “It’s not really the animal welfare associations.”
