What is a battery - caged chicken?

Battery chicken keeping is a cruel practice that is inspiring much protest from animal rights groups, and I personally boycott cage eggs.

When you see 'cage eggs' printed on an egg carton, it means those eggs were laid by battery chickens. Battery chickens live a miserable life, cramped three and four into tiny metal cages about the size of a bar fridge. Because their toes must curl around the bars to stay upright, most cannot walk on a flat surface. As soon as they lay an egg, it rolls down into the egg compartment so they can't eat it. The only thing they have to eat is chicken feed - no grass, no scraps, no insects, none of the nice things that free chickens like to eat.

The constant proximity to other chickens means that they peck each other and most are featherless and bleeding. To try to minimise the damage, all of them have their beaks clipped. My friend bought some battery chickens past best lay and attempted to rehabilitate them. Only one of the chickens could walk and it took weeks to get them on their feet. One chicken's beak was so badly damaged that she has to be spoon fed baby cereal. All of the chickens were psychologically disturbed and would walk in circles or stand still in one place. It took them months to return to normal behavior and some were still not acting like normal chickens.

Most battery chickens aren't that lucky. Once past best lay, they are culled - dog food, if that.
When choosing eggs, boycott cage eggs. Always choose barn laid or free-range eggs. These chickens can walk where they please, and although often kept in high-density conditions they are not forced to live in cages. They have a far better life and the dollar or two more for a carton of eggs is so worth it when you know the sort of misery that battery chickens go through.

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