April 2, 2007 - Shocking new Canadian footage of egg farm animal cruelty

 

Animal protection groups call for all universities in Canada to follow University of Guelph and go cage-free

 

Watch the footage - Click here

 

Toronto and Vancouver - The Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals (CCFA) and the Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) are holding news conferences at university campuses in Toronto and Vancouver to release new footage of shocking conditions on a Canadian egg farm, underscoring the cruel conditions under which Canada’s hens exist, and calling on all universities in Canada to go cage-free.

 

Monday, April 2, 2007:
Toronto: University of Toronto Hart House (South Dining Room, 2nd Floor, West wing) at 11am (ET)
Vancouver: SFU Harbour Centre (corner of Hastings and Richards), Room 2945 at 11am (PST)

 

The footage, taken at Clark Egg Farms Ltd. in Caledonia, Ontario, reveals row upon row of hens in extremely crowded conditions; crammed into wire cages so tightly they cannot stretch even one wing. Some hens are filthy with feces from the hens above and all have the front portion of their beaks cut off.

 

International poultry expert Dr. Mohan Raj says the birds in the footage “appear to be distressed, suffer from severe loss of feathers, some are covered with excrement and they all seem to have overgrown and deformed claws.” He describes the dead birds seen in some cages as summing up “the extent of cruelty inflicted on these hens.”

 

CCFA and VHS are calling on all universities to follow the lead of the University of Guelph, which recently announced it would use only cage-free shell eggs on campus.

 

“If Canada’s premier agricultural university can do it, so can the others,” states Bruce Passmore, VHS’s Farm Animal Welfare Coordinator. “It’s a clear choice between compassion and cruelty – these birds suffer horrendously and it doesn’t have to be this way – there are alternatives.” The University of BC, Simon Fraser University, the BC Institute of Technology, McGill, Concordia and numerous other universities and colleges in Canada are working on similar policies. The University of Toronto has a local sustainable food initiative with a cage-free egg component.

 

Recent advances such as Burger King’s announcement that it will begin buying eggs and pork from suppliers that don’t confine animals in cages and crates; Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck’s new strict animal welfare code for suppliers and Maple Leaf Foods’ move to phase out sow crates in Canada are signals to industry, according to Stephanie Brown of CCFA. “The science is clear – animals are suffering in these systems. It’s time for change.”