Animal rights groups, including the Humane Farming Association, Friends of Animals, and SAFE, are opposing the Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2013 sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein. Referred to as the “Rotten Egg Bill” by opponents, the measure would make a deal between the United Egg Producers and the Humane Society of the United States the law of the land.
Bradley Miller, National Director of the Humane Farming Association (HFA) said, “the egg industry wants to establish egg factory cages as a national standard that could never be challenged or changed by state law or public vote. The American public overwhelmingly supports the banning of egg factory cages, not measures such as this which would ban the outlawing of cages. This bill would be disastrous for laying hens would be forever locked in cages – as well as for millions of Americans nationwide whose voting rights would be traded away.” Last year, a similar bill did not make it out of committee in the Senate, partly because the United Egg Producers have been sued for alleged price fixing.
Dr. Nedim Buyukmihci, Emeritus Professor of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, also opposes the bill. He says that battery cages are the “most unhealthful and distressing means of keeping hens for egg production. What the proposed legislation will do is keep the confinement of hens in cages legal, something that no humane-minded individual should accept.” Consumers can sign the HFA’s petition to stop the bill at their web site.
