Lawmakers right to defend farm animals

3/15/07

The comfort and security of egg-laying hens does not, understandably, rise to the level of a crisis for most people. But while talk of rising taxes and foundering schools has dominated the state Capitol of late, the Assembly’s Environment Committee heard testimony last week on the moral and financial implications of a ban on cages for hens, and a consequent ban on the state buying eggs from caged hens.
It’s an important discussion, and one that shouldn’t be dismissed. Factory farming as practiced in this country is an abomination, and one needn’t be an animal-rights activist to believe there should be changes. The Connecticut egg industry is nowhere near the depths of other types of food production, but it’s worth exploring ways to make changes.
Advocates for the new policy point out that each caged hen is afforded less space than a single sheet of letter-sized paper on which to live its life. Opponents counter that there is no scientific evidence to show that cage-free hens are happier than their imprisoned brethren because they lay eggs at about the same rate — as though that was the only criterion.
Denying an animal any part of its natural life is necessarily cruel, and the confinement at issue in this bill is hugely limiting. Natural behavior is all but impossible in a cage where the birds can not even turn around. It’s not practical to bring an immediate end to current practices — farmers say they’d close up shop immediately if the law is enacted — but it is worth phasing in a change over a period of time to a system that is less cruel, less limiting and more humane. Connecticut farmers need to stay competitive, but there are also moral issues at play; needless cruelty should be eliminated wherever possible.
The libertarian argument, that customers should be allowed to choose what kind of eggs they want without government mandates, as put forward by Agriculture Commissioner F. Philip Prelli, holds no water — few would choose to inflict extra cruelty on the animals we eat for dinner, but people buy factory-farmed chicken, beef and pork all the same. They have no choice, in most cases.
But a system that treats living things with unnecessary suffering and cruelty needs to be changed. A good place to start is to phase in a ban on unnaturally limiting cages for egg-laying hens. It may not be the average constituent’s top priority, but the way we treat powerless living things under our control says a lot about who we are as a society. If most people knew what their dinner had to go through to make it to the dinner table, bills like this would likely provoke a far greater outcry in their favor.