BREAKING: A Look Inside Mexico’s Cruel Egg Industry
Guadalajara, Mexico – For the first time ever, Animal Equality brings us powerful images from inside Mexico’s cruel egg industry. It’s an exclusive look into the conditions in which fragile, sensitive hens are treated like machines.
The footage, obtained between March and the end of September 2016, highlights the suffering of hens living in factory farms in the state of Jalisco where about 95 million hens live, representing more than 50% of Mexico’s hen population. It shows:
- Overcrowding in battery cages.
- The cruelty of forced molting.
- Hens who have had their beaks mutilated.
- Sick and injured chickens who receive no medical care.
- Chickens dying within the cages.
In order to maximize industry profits, hens have their beaks mutilated a few days after they are born, to prevent attacks on other hens due to the stressful conditions. The hens are forced to live in cramped battery cages, for up to two years. The sick and injured are denied veterinary care. Those who survive are forced to live alongside those who die.
One of the cruelest practices is forced molting. A process in which farmers deprive hens of food and water for three days, to accelerate the process of a second egg laying cycle. Hens who survive this tortuous process often lose up to 20% of their bodyweight. Many others die in agony. “Our goal is to ban the cages and all the suffering that this inhumane practice involves. Breeding these animals in cages is one of the cruelest practices”, says Sharon Nunez, International Director of Animal Equality.
According to Dulce Ramirez, Animal Equality’s Executive Director in Mexico: ” Several of Mexico’s largest food companies have already made commitments to phase out these cruel and archaic cages, avoiding the risk of falling behind competition since these inhumane conditions are completely out of step with the values we share as Mexicans. Society has a right to know how what they are consuming is produced, so that they can make compassionate decisions.” Groundbreaking investigations like these give us the evidence to demonstrate to companies that cages must be abolished. You can help further this work, and help hens like these, by donating to end factory farming in Mexico – and throughout the world.
