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to the bin of Bad Ideas!January 2009Special report by Compassion in World Farming (South Africa)

An appeal toSouth African consumers

Please help make 2009 a turning point for the22.8 million laying hens trapped in battery cagesin South Africa.Seventeen years ago, we were pre-vented from having battery farmingtested in open court when the Attor-ney General refused to prosecute.We said battery farming contravenedthe Animals Protection Act onthree crucial grounds. Senior Coun-sel Bennie Griessel (now a judge of the highcourt), stated in a formal legal opinion that we hada prima facie case. However, Adv. Frank Kahn,

Attorney General at the time, assisted by Advo-cate Billy Downer (above), refused to prosecuteand did not give reasons for his decision.

Today, in a world more aware, we believe westand a good chance to persuade legisla-tors and supermarkets to do the right thing

and introduce a phase-out of battery farming of

laying hens. Woolworths has done this already and has been a cage-free supermarket chain since 2004!Compassion in World Farming (SA) believes that the introduction ofbattery farming for laying hens 60-odd years ago, wasnt just a badidea. It was a mistake of major proportions born of a mentality of humanarrogance, ignorance and exploitation. We now know it was bad for theplanet (pollution, spread of disease etc.), did not end up feeding thepoor cheaply and was disastrous for the chickens.

Battery farming of laying hens contravenes the Animals ProtectionAct on three grounds:

It is illegal to maim an animal. Battery hens are debeakedand often detoed;

It is illegal to keep an animal in inadequate space. Battery hens livefor a year and sometimes two years in a space that is 75% of anordinary A4 sheet of paper, unable even to stretch a wing;

It is illegal to cause an animal unnecessary suffering.

Banishing the battery egg

Compassion in World Farming - South African Office:PO Box 825, Somerset West 7129 Tel. 021 852 8160

email: avoice@yebo.co.za

Websites: www.animal-voice.org www.ciwf.org

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In thecramped andbarrenconfines of thebattery cage:

They cannot scratch and peck.

They cannot walk.

They cannot perch.

They cannot preen their beaks

are burned and blunted.

They cannot lay their eggs in anest.

They cannot stretch a wing.

They cannot dustbath.

They are deprived of sufficientsleep with the lights being turnedon at 3am to stimulate their ovaries(ovaries are responsive to light).

They stand on wire bars withoutrespite.

Massive fans blow out the ammo-nia from the battery sheds, causinga constant noise.

After having laid some 300 eggs,they are sold live to hawkers forinformal slaughter.

They die never having felt the soilbeneath their feet nor the warmthof the sun on their backs.

wings; they do not have perching space; they do not have solid bases on

which to stand.

Action: Please email the following people and courteously request that battery cages be phased out over an

agreed period of time: Tessa Chamberlain, GM Sustainable Development, Pick n Pay,tchamberlain@pnp.co.za Brian Weyers, Marketing Director, Shoprite/Checkers, bweyers@shoprite.co.za

Graham Claassens, National Brands Manager for Spar, Graham.Claassens@spar.co.za Keven Lovell, CEOof SA Poultry Association, sapa@sapoultry.co.za Keith Ramsay, Senior Livestock Specialist at the Dept of

Agriculture, KeithR@nda.agric.za Please contact us for their postal addresses if you wish to write a letter.

The cruelty is constant and continual and

without relief.- Magistrate Phillip Wright in

a case against a battery farmer in Tasmania.

Animal welfare swoops on the small guys!

Battery chickens stand

on wire for up to two

years with no respite. As fashion icon Dion Chang pointsout in Leadership magazine(December 2008, Edition 289),there is a new breed of consumerabout town!

The 2009 consumer has evolved

from being a passive consumer

dictated to by manufacturers andretailers to an active/aggressiveconsumer, who is technologicallysavvy, socially aware, informed

and very, very vocal!

So lets do it! Lets each of us indi-vidually ask supermarkets to helpbanish the battery egg to the bin ofbad ideas!

Consumers, please help!

Battery cages will be bannedbecause of their cruelty

throughout Europe by 2012.

But why pick onthe hawker only?

Please support our effortsOur bank details are: The Humane Education Trust,

Account no. 9094070046, ABSA Bank, branch no. 334 712

Why not target the big guys, like farm-

ers and supermarkets?Agribusiness has profited from keep-ing chickens in conditions that largelymatch those in which they are kept byhawkers. The hawkers cages, as wellas the battery cages that they comefrom, are: so cramped and overcrowded that

they are unable to open their