US Congress: Yes to the humane treatment of Hens in the Egg Industry! Include them in the Animal Welfare Act.

The objective of this petition is to convince the US House of Representatives to revise the Animal Welfare Act to include Hens used in the Egg Industry.

The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) is one of the few federal laws that protects the welfare of animals in the US. The purpose of the law is to prevent "needless suffering," improve working conditions, and improve "products and economies in slaughtering operations." by setting the minimum standards for the treatment of animals. HMSA covers livestock animals, such as cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep, swine, and “other livestock,” which has been interpreted to include goats and “other equines.”

There is one very big problem with the coverage of the law: poultry, which make up over 9 billion of the total of 10 billion land animals killed for food every year in the US are excluded. Why? Because many industrial farm companies want to keep their profits high.

Most of us don’t realize that each time we buy and enjoy eggs, they come from hens who suffer unimaginable tortures, both psychological and physical, throughout their short lives.

Even eggs labeled “Free Range” mislead consumers into thinking that they come from hens that live happy lives running around in farms. The truth is so far from this.

Some of the most common cruel practices in the egg industry include:

• The cutting off of the beaks of all hens, called “de-beaking”
• 90% of all hens live all their lives in overcrowded cages called “battery cages” with so little space that they can’t even flex their legs or turn around
• Even eggs labeled “Barn” or “Free Range” come from hens that are crammed in the many thousands in very small enclosures with no or little access to daylight or fresh air. These are so crowded that many hens are stomped upon and break their legs. With no veterinary supervision they die from their wounds and suffocation
• Many in the industry still use a process that is called “Forced Molting” which involves that starving of hens for weeks to force start egg laying
• When egg laying hens retire at around age two, they are sent to the slaughter house. Here they are brutally handled by “catchers” – men who catch them by their legs and shoving them into drawers. This breaks the legs of up to 50% of the chicken.
• The hens are slaughtered as follows: electrocuted until the hen loses consciousness, throats cut by machines and then plunged into scalding hot water to make it easier to remove feathers. Unfortunately, the hens are often conscious throughout the whole process.
• Male chicks are often disposed of by “grinding” (Macerator), a process where the live chicks are fed into a grinding machine

Please help change this! Sign my petition and write the letter below to US Representative Earl Blumenauer:

Copy & paste the following text either as a Facebook post on https://www.facebook.com/blumenauer or in a letter to be posted:

The Honorable Earl Blumenauer
United States House of Representatives
1111 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-3703
Honorable Earl Blumenauer,

I am writing to you because I just signed an online petition to revise the Animal Welfare Act to include hens used in the egg industry. Hens in the industry in the US suffer tremendously with little or no regulation compared to for example the European Union.
I have come to know that you have been and are a strong proponent of animal welfare in the US and seek your assistance in revising the Act.
Here is a link to the petition in which I just signed:

Sincerely,
(Your name and address here)