NZ should follow moves overseas to ban colony eggs, animal rights group says

Friday, 3 July 2020

Farmwatch photographed chickens in colony cages at Northern Eggs near Whangārei in December.

Animal rights group Safe says New Zealand should follow Colorado, United States, which is the latest to ban caged hens.

It was the seventh US state to do so. Colony cages were also being phased out in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and parts of Belgium, Safe corporate campaigns manager Jessica Chambers said.

Colorado had almost twice as many hens as New Zealand, so there was no reason they could not be banned here either, she said.

Battery cages were due to become illegal in 2023 but colony cages would remain legal. Colony cages did not afford the hens better quality of life, she said.

Colony cages offered hens perches and one nest area, bereft of nesting material, and a small rubber scratch pad, but did little to improve the hen's welfare, Safe says.

* Free-range chickens kept in flocks of 36,000

* Safe's cage-free directory to help consumers make educated egg buying decisions**

Labour and the Green Party had previously committed to banning caged hens. but Safe wanted them banned before this year's election, Chambers said.

According to Safe there were are an estimated 3.94 million hens used for egg laying in New Zealand, of which, about 2.74 million spent their lifetime in cages where they could not stretch their wings.

The Egg Producers Federation website referred to colony hen farming as an 'enriched colony enclosure production system'.

But Chambers said these 'enrichments', which offered hens perches and one nest area, bereft of nesting material, and a small rubber scratch pad, did little to improve the hen's welfare, Chambers said.

A Colmar Brunton poll showed 50 per cent of New Zealanders buy free-range eggs.

'They’re still a highly confined system. They still don’t have the space to open their wings or express their natural behaviour.“

Poultry Industry Association executive director Michael Brooks said colony systems met government standards for animal welfare.

Brooks noted a 2012 report from the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, which included representatives from the SPCA and the NZ Veterinary Association, which said colonies provided equivalent or superior welfare when compared to barn or free-range.

A Colmar Brunton poll from February showed 76 per cent of New Zealanders largely opposed the use of colony cages. Four per cent of respondents supported their use.

New Zealanders bought free-range eggs 50 per cent of the time, with 5 per cent saying they bought caged eggs. Twenty-eight per cent of respondents just bought what was cheapest or what was available.

Supermarket cooperative Foodstuffs spokeswoman Antoinette Laird said it was working with suppliers to transition from caged eggs in line with legislation.

'Consumer demand has been gradually increasing for cage-free and free-range eggs for some time. Pams eggs, which are exclusive to Pak ‘n Save. New World and Four Square have been cage-free since 2008,” Laird said.

Countdown supermarkets said in 2017 it was aiming to sell only cage free eggs by the end of 2024 in the North Island and by the end of 2025 in the South Island.

'All of our own-brand eggs will transition earlier, and will be either barn or free-range by the beginning of 2023,' a spokeswoman said.