From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2011:
New Delhi–The Indian office of Humane Society International
on June 20, 2011 introduced a confidential e-mail address,
<starvinghens@hsi.org>, for informants to use to report egg farms
that starve hens to induce forced molts, a practice which
metabolically simulates winter and causes the hens to produce more
eggs when they are again fed, metabolically simulating spring.
“The program was launched after the Animal Welfare Board of
India directed all poultry farms in the country to immediately
discontinue starvation force molt regimes, stating that the practice
is in violation of India’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of
1960, and a punishable offence,” said HIS factory farming campaign
manager N.G. Jayasimha. “Once HSI receives a report about starvation
molting on a particular farm,” Jayasimha pledged, “we will work
with the state animal husbandry department, the local SPCA, the
Animal Welfare Board of India, and the state animal welfare board to
investigate.”
The agencies responsible for agricultural law enforcement in
Maharashtra and Karnataka states had already issued orders enforcing
the Animal Welfare Board of India edict against forced molts.
Equivalent agencies in Nagaland and Chandigarh followed within the
next two days, meaning four states had agreed to comply with the
AWBI decree. India is comprised of 28 states and seven “union
territories.”
