Maryland Residents: Take Action!
Help Hens in Your State
The Maryland state legislature is currently considering legislation to improve the lives of hens in the egg industry. SB 690 would implement critical minimum standards for housing these sensitive, emotionally complex animals. Specifically, the bill would prohibit the extreme overcrowding that is currently common in the egg industry and would also outlaw the use of cruel cages. This legislation would also ensure that eggs sold in Maryland come from operations that meet these modest standards, no matter where they are produced.
CRUEL CONFINEMENT
Most of the eggs currently sold in Maryland come from industrial factory farms that confine hens in extraordinarily small spaces, often in barren wire cages. A hen confined in such a manner suffers from extreme pain, psychological stress from overcrowding, and even feather-pecking and cannibalism by other hens. The practice of confining these animals in such abysmal conditions is motivated by profit, not animal welfare.
PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL TORMENT
Hens raised in battery cages (i.e., the vast majority of hens in the egg industry presently) live their entire lives in a space no larger than the surface of an iPad; they are unable to engage in any natural behaviors like flapping their wings, walking, perching, dust bathing, or laying eggs in nest boxes. The physical and psychological torment caused by these conditions is obvious to anyone, and animal welfare experts agree.
AN OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE BIRDS' LIVES
Maryland SB 690 is an opportunity to improve the lives of millions of birds! If you live in Maryland, please reach out to your state officials today using the form above and ask them to support this important legislation to help farmed animals.
CAGES ARE INHUMANE
If you’d like to learn more about why cages of any size are so problematic, check out Animal Equality’s recent investigation of a major egg producer that is using so-called “enriched” colony cages. You’ll see why commercial cages of any kind can never be humane.
“Despite anti-cruelty laws, a hen raised for her eggs in Maryland can be legally confined for her entire life in a crowded barren cage. To confine a dog or cat this way would be animal abuse, yet hens are exempt from these basic legal protections. That is why we need legislation like SB 690 to make this cruel confinement of hens illegal in Maryland once and for all.”
Sarah Hanneken
Legal Advocacy Counsel, Animal Equality