Andronico's Market Puts the Chicken Before the Egg

WASHINGTON – Today, Bay Area grocery chain Andronico's is hatching a new policy: eliminating the sale of eggs from hens confined in abusive battery cages. The Humane Society of the United States, the nation's largest animal protection organization, along with East Bay Animal Advocates, is commending the company for its decision.

Albany-based Andronico's has nine stores throughout the Bay Area, including locations in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Berkeley, Walnut Creek, San Anselmo and Los Altos. The chain has ended the sale of eggs from hens confined in wire battery cages, and all Andronico's stores are now exclusively selling cage-free eggs. Andronico's sells approximately 4.8 million eggs each year.

Bill Andronico, president and CEO of Andronico's, stated, "We are proud of our switch away from battery cage eggs. This new policy furthers our commitment to social responsibility, including animal welfare."

Andronico's joins a growing number of schools and companies across the country that are moving away from eggs from caged hens. In California alone, grocery chains such as Whole Foods Market, Wild Oats Natural Marketplace, Jimbo's…Naturally!, Mother's Market & Kitchen and Lassen's Natural Foods & Vitamins have stopped selling cage eggs. Trader Joe's has converted its private line eggs to cage-free. Palo Alto-based Bon Appétit, a major food service company, is phasing out the use of cage eggs in all of its 400 cafés, including at Yahoo!, Oracle and Cisco Systems. Frozen dessert maker Ben & Jerry's is also phasing out the use of cage eggs in its ice creams. Even companies such as AOL and Google have ended the use of cage eggs in their employee cafeterias.

And California schools such as UC Berkeley, University of San Francisco, Santa Clara University and Notre Dame de Namur join nearly 100 others across the country in enacting policies to eliminate or greatly reduce their use of cage eggs

"The Humane Society of the United States commends Andronico's for its leadership in ending its support for one of the worst factory farm abuses, and we encourage other companies to follow its example," commented Paul Shapiro, Factory Farming Campaign director for The HSUS.

Christine Morrissey, president of East Bay Animal Advocates, stated, "Andronico's new cage-free egg policy demonstrates just how quickly battery cage confinement is becoming a thing of the past."

U.S. factory farms confine nearly 300 million hens in barren, wire battery cages that are so small, the birds can't spread their wings, walk, or perform many other important behaviors, such as nesting, foraging, perching, and dust bathing. Each bird has less space than a single sheet of paper on which to live, leading to extremely high levels of stress and frustration.

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The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization with more than 9.5 million members and constituents. The HSUS is a mainstream voice for animals, with active programs in companion animals, disaster preparedness and response, wildlife and habitat protection, marine mammals, animals in research, equine protection and farm animal welfare. The HSUS protects all animals through education, investigation, litigation, legislation, advocacy and field work. The nonprofit organization is based in Washington and has field representatives and offices across the country. On the web at www.hsus.org.

East Bay Animal Advocates is a non-profit organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Exposing animal cruelty in modern agriculture is of utmost importance to EBAA. Through direct aid and education outreach, EBAA is dedicated to fighting and preventing animal abuse in California's agricultural industry and beyond. On the web at www.eastbayanimaladvocates.org.