Local College Students Receive National Humane Award

WASHINGTON—Today, the nation's largest animal protection organization announced that three Washington, D.C.-area students have won the Award for Excellence in Student Advocacy for their roles in The Humane Society of the United States' (HSUS') Cage-Free Campus Campaign. The students worked with Georgetown, American, and George Washington University dining officials to implement a cage-free egg purchasing policy for their respective universities.

The students—Tara Burgos at Georgetown University, Dave Benzaquen at American University, and April Meyer at George Washington University—each approached dining officials out of concern for animal welfare, since egg-laying hens are among the most abused farm animals. After The HSUS provided the universities with information about the many benefits of implementing a cage-free egg policy, dining officials willingly instituted the welfare-friendly purchasing and serving decision to no longer use eggs from birds confined in cages in their dining facilities.

Josh Balk, outreach coordinator for The HSUS Factory Farming Campaign, commended the students: "Tara, Dave, and April have demonstrated just how easy it is for one person to make a very real difference in the lives of farm animals. The HSUS hopes other students will follow their positive example by working with their schools to discontinue their use of eggs from caged hens."

With the students' help, their schools have helped improve the lives of thousands of animals.  Thanks to the positive publicity and student support resulting from the new egg policies, these schools have inspired others to join the snowballing cage-free trend. More than 80 other schools have now eliminated or dramatically decreased their use of eggs from caged hens, including Gallaudet University, Vassar College, Tufts University, and Dartmouth College.

In the United States, approximately 95 percent of eggs sold come from hens confined in barren "battery cages," wire enclosures so small the birds can't even spread their wings or engage in many other natural behaviors, such as nesting, foraging, perching, and dust bathing. The cages are stacked one on top of another inside huge warehouses on factory farms. Each bird is afforded 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 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, equine protection, animals in research 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.