December 14, 2005 - Christmas Hen Brings Coal to Super Valu

 

 

Store lands on Humane Society “Naughty List” for treatment of egg-laying hens

 

(Vancouver) Henny, the Vancouver Humane Society’s 6 foot escaped battery hen mascot, will be dressed in festive clothes delivering coal to the Davie Street Super Valu at 12’oclock (noon) for “being naughty” to egg-laying hens and consumers. The society is asking Loblaw, the parent company of Super Valu, to use in-store labelling to identify eggs from caged hens so that consumers can make educated choices.

 

“Most consumers don’t want to support gross cruelty towards animals,” Says Bruce Passmore, the Farm Animal Welfare Project Coordinator at the Vancouver Humane Society (VHS). “But egg carton labels are so confusing, it’s hard to know which system the eggs were produced in and what you are inadvertently supporting.”

The VHS and the Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals (CCFA) recently released video and photographic footage of horrendous conditions on an egg farm in Ontario that is owned by a veterinarian and supplies the domestic market. (Video footage available in BETA CAM SP & DVD format and photos on CD, on request, or may be seen at www.humanefood.ca.)

 

In the video, hens are shown in a “battery” of wire cages, five to seven hens per cage, with the cages stacked five high. The birds suffer from severe feather-loss and are covered in feces. Several chickens had fallen into the three-foot high manure pit below to starve to death. Conditions on egg farms across Canada are similar, which is why VHS and CCFA are asking Loblaw to label its eggs from farms where hens are caged – so “nice” Canadians can easily avoid supporting this cruelty.

 

“This type of labelling is already present in many parts of the European Union,” continued Passmore. “By 2012, it will be mandatory. All we want for Christmas this year is to see eggs clearly labelled in Loblaw stores across Canada.”