Leading the news, and following the amended codes of
welfare for goats, pigs and commercial slaughter, the Government is once again addressing animal health and wellbeing.
The Government’s Animal Welfare Advisors, NAWAC, are looking at banning the use of cages for laying hens, in a new draft code released on Tuesday.
The code recommends phasing out the use of cages which currently don’t allow laying animals room to move around, or in some cases, even stand up.
The draft report says hens should be able to have enough space to behave and move naturally during the laying period, and be able to stretch and extend their wings.
NAWAC’s Chairman Dr John Hellstrom says there is currently no phase out date, but all egg producers will have to come to terms with the new rules eventually.
"We’ve said the options are five to ten years, ten to fifteen, or more then fifteen years.
"The sooner you do it then the bigger the cost to the industry; and if the industry has to make the change in the next five years then it is going to cost them about $150 million.
"If they wait until they have used up the economic life of their curre
nt cages it will be about $50 million, so the industry obviously wants to leave it longer, but we would like to see it happen sooner."
The Green Party has come out in support of the drafted code, saying it’s not before time.
Animal welfare spokesperson Sue Kedgley says while the party is encouraged by NAWAC’s stance, they’d like to see the changes go further.
"It’s a joke. To think that they are basically saying that the national animal welfare advisory committee; which made this recommendation; Acknowledges battery hen cages breach the animal welfare act.
"That they don’t allow hens to express any natural behaviour, then they go onto say 'but never the less we will allow them for another twenty years, even though they breach the act; and then we will allow them to use a different sort of cage system', which will clearly breach the act as well.
"It’s a complete nonsense and consumers won’t be fooled by this.
"There will be huge opposition to it, and any claims that the government makes that it supports animal welfare are completely undermined by this proposed hen code."
Opposition from the industry has been immediate though, with producers asking for a 20 year induction period in order to spread the cost of the phase out.
Egg Producers Federation Chair Michael Guthrie says ‘enriched colony systems’ are a fair compromise, which allow large numbers of birds to move naturally, perch and scratch.
"We’ve got to put this in a holistic situation, we’ve got to balance animal welfare along with human welfare and the ability for people to have a sustainable supply of affordable eggs.
"This way we will be able to do that, if you go to a complete non enclosure system like barn or free range, which have their own welfare issues.
"I mean they are not free of them at all. These things give us a more holistic approach to that supply of good affordable eggs."
Animal Welfare activists though, say the ERC system is still a form of cage, and has been internationally condemned.
Submissions on the code are open now until the 25th of March, and can be found here.
