FIGHTING FOR FACTORY-FARMED HENS AND HOGS
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:
The German Supreme Court in
Karlsruhe ruled on July 6 that laws already on the
books require poultry farmers to give egg-laying
hens much more space than either the minimum set
by regulation in 1987 or the enlarged
minimum––about twice as big––which is to be phased
into effect by 2003 under a June directive from the
European Union. The EU directive would also end
battery caging entirely by 2012; the German verdict
says, in effect, “Do it now.” Wrote the judges, “It is
generally the case that no one may inflict pain, suffering,
or damage on an animal without good reason”––and,
by implication, they held the mere maintenance
of profitability to be not good reason.