A Ban on Battery Cages in the ACT

A ban on the use of battery cages for egg production in the ACT is well overdue and is now very achievable.

Why?

* It would affect one facility only – Pace Farm, Parkwood.

* The ACT Greens’ now hold the balance of power in the Assembly and their Animal Welfare policy states that they support “legislating to phase out battery egg production in the ACT by 2012” - a commitment not only to the ban but also to an achievable time-frame – one that aligns with the coming EU ban.

* The ACT Legislative Assembly has favoured a ban for over ten years.

• A ban was passed by the Legislative Assembly in 1997. In 1997 the Animal Welfare Amendment Act 1996 was passed which resulted in this clause being inserted in the ACT Animal Welfare Act 1992,

9A Battery hens
A person commits an offence if—
(a) the person keeps hens for egg production; and
(b) the hens are kept in a battery cage system.

Maximum penalty: 100 penalty units, imprisonment for 1 year or both.

However, this clause is still uncommenced due to its commencement being tied to a ban on the sale of cage eggs in the ACT which required an exemption under the Mutual Recognition Act.

• Ten years later, during the debate on The Greens’ Animal Welfare Amendment Bill 2007 both major parties expressed their opposition to battery cages.

LABOR: A Government media release of 25 Sep 2007 announced three measures “designed to phase out battery egg production in the ACT”. The three measures announced by the Chief Minister were:

1. An offer of assistance to Pace Farm to convert their Parkwood facility to barn or free-range


2. Aproaching other governments in an attempt to achieve a national approach to the issue


3. Implementing a purchasing policy in all ACT Government institutions which prohibits cage-eggs

He went on to say that if measures 1 and 2 failed he was prepared to revisit a ban: “Mr Stanhope said if the offer of industry assistance was not accepted after negotiation with Pace and if advocacy at the national level proved fruitless the Government was prepared to revisit the issue of battery egg production in the future”.

The Chief Minister has admitted that his advocacy at the national level has failed. Pace has not accepted the offer to convert – eighteen months after it was made. They do not see a market for barn eggs and the location is not suitable for free-range hens.

LIBERAL:
Then the Liberals announced in the Assembly on 26 Sep 2007: “The Canberra Liberals support the banning of cage egg production not just in the ACT, as is the proposition of the Greens, but also nationally".

* Pace Farm is not an important industry to the ACT.

• Pace has very few employees (only 14, according to their details as given to the National Pollutant Inventory).
• The company pays a trivial rent of $486 per annum for the Parkwood site.
  

* Pace Farm is not committed to the ACT.When new regulations required more space per hen (1 Jan 2008) Pace simply restocked with fewer birds per cage. They did not invest in new cages but made minimal changes to their very old cages.

* Pace Farm is not a good neighbour for the ACT.

• Pace has breached the code of practice by leaving hens to slowly die in the manure pits. Particularly during de-stocking – every 15-16months or so –hens can fall into the manure pits below the cages. The Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals, Domestic Poultry, 4th Edition states in part:

11.3 … In the case of poultry in cages the daily inspection must
specifically include checking for entrapment and checking of the manure areas under cages for escaped birds. …

12.7 Where birds are found to have escaped into the manure area under cages they must be captured as soon as practicable on
the day of observation and returned to cages or destroyed humanely.

In 2008, a day after a de-stocking event, 70-80 hens were rescued from the manure pits.

After a previous de-stocking event, many of the hens rescued had rock-hard, tennis ball sized accumulations of manure on their legs – evidence that they had been in the pits for far longer than 1 or 2 days.

• The Macgregor West residential development is right next to the Pace Farm facility. Macgregor West is located less than 1 km east of the battery hen sheds and the occasional huge piles of manure. With houses so close this is another good reason to close down the facility. A hot westerly wind will not smell like roses to residents of the new development.

* A ban on battery cages has the strong support of the ACT community.

• A local survey commissioned in September 2005 regarding the ACT community’s views on battery caged hens found 73% of respondents supported banning the cages.

• A WIN TV News poll resulted in an overwhelming 94% support for a ban.
  

* There is a clear and irresistible world-wide move away from these inhumane cages.

• Some jurisdictions have moved to ban the cages.

• An EU-wide ban on the use of conventional battery cages for egg laying hens will be applied from 1 January 2012
  

• The US state of California voted last year to ban the cages.
  

• Many retailers, campuses and other organisations have announced that they will no longer purchase cage eggs.
  

• From http://www.farminguk.com/news/Sainsburys-make-decision-to-sell-only-free-range-eggs-from-5th-February10251.asp: "UK retailer, Sainsbury’s announced that from 5th February 2009 it will no longer sell eggs from battery hens. Sainsbury’s is the first major retailer to make such a pledge ensuring over half a million hens will no longer be kept in battery cages".
  

• Over 150 US university campuses – including Harvard, Princeton and Tufts – have made the decision not to support the cruelty of battery hen farming. In Australia the University of Newcastlehas decided to have all food outlets use cage-free eggs.
  

• Three Tasmanian local councils (Hobart, Clarence and Launceston) have announced that they will only use eggs from free range farms at council functions and our own ACT Government institutions will not purchase any more cage eggs after May 2009.
  

• McDonalds UK serves only free-range eggs now.

• In Britain, the Guardianreports that the majority of eggs purchased in
  March 2008 were from free-range hens.
  

• In Australia, the proportion eggs sold which came from cages is decreasing.

The Australian Egg Corporation Annual Reports show that the market share of free-range eggs in Australia rose from 20.3% to 23.4% in the 12 months to June 2007 while the sale of cage eggs dropped from 74.9% to 71.4% in the same period.

* The ban would be an effective, important step for animal welfare.

The Chief Minister argues that an ACT ban would be ineffective as Pace would simply move the cages interstate.

In his Media Release, “Momentum for battery egg phase out”, of 16 Apr 2008, Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said, “While there have been calls for the ACT Government to simply ban the use of battery cages in the ACT, this would not save a single hen from the fate of life in a battery cage, as the battery cage would just move across the border where the use of battery cage use was still legal”.

I disagree. Given the strong move away from cage egg consumption, egg producers such as Pace Farm are unlikely to invest in new cage facilities. They can see the writing on the wall.

However, even if the cages were relocated, an ACT ban would send a clear message to the industry, consumers and other States.

It would be a very important, symbolic step.

Let’s finally do it!