Battery cages are going out, too
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2007:
WASHINGTON D.C.–Humane Society of the U.S. factory farming
campaign director Paul Shapiro is struggling lately to find new ways
of wording announcements that major buyers are, at HSUS request,
giving up using eggs from battery-caged hens.
The Burgerville restaurant chain, based in Vancouver,
Washington, announced it would make the switch on January 17, 2007.
Finagle A Bagel, of Newton, Massa-chusetts, made the switch on
January 29. The State University of New York at New Paltz dining
halls followed on February 13.
Shapiro had already made similar announcements on behalf of
the dining halls at more than 100 other universities, among them
Vassar, Princeton, Tufts, and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
The anti-battery caging drive picked up momentum in September
2006, after the Vermont ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc.
announced that it would begin a four-year transition to using only
cage-free eggs.
The change will take that long because Ben & Jerry’s is such
a big user that an adequate cage-free egg supply is not immediately
available. The phase-in gives present suppliers time to revamp their
operations to comply with Ben & Jerry’s new policy.
Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals director John Youngman
noted the success of the HSUS campaign in a February 15 op-ed column
for the Vancouver Sun, challenging Canadian egg users to join in.
“AOL and Google have stopped serving battery eggs in their
corporate dining facilities,” Goodman wrote. “American grocery
chains Earth Fare, Whole Foods Market-place, and Wild Oats Natural
Marketplace have agreed to stop selling battery eggs. Trader Joe’s
has converted its brand eggs to cage-free. The Canadian retailers
Capers Community Markets and Planet Organic have stopped selling
battery eggs.
“The cities of Toronto, Vancouver, Richmond, North
Vancouver and New Westminster are considering cage-free egg
policies,” Goodman said. “The University of Guelph, the University
of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and the B.C.
Institute of Technology are considering similar policies. The
writing is on the wall for Canada’s egg industry,” Goodman declared.
“Get cracking and unlock the cages, or consumers will do it for you.”
