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| Chetana Mirle/HSI |
| Rows and rows of living animals crammed together. |
Hens are intelligent animals who form strong family ties. Yet, many of these birds are treated as mere egg-producing units at factory farms.
Around the world, hundreds of millions of egg-laying hens are confined in small, wire enclosures known as battery cages. Battery cages are so cramped that the hens are unable to perform many important natural behaviors, including walking, perching, dust bathing, nesting, or even fully stretching their wings. They suffer psychological stress as well as numerous physical harms, including bone weakness and breakage, feather loss, and diseases. Standard industry practices, such as slicing off parts of beaks without painkillers and manipulating the hens’ laying cycles by starving them, cause the birds significant pain.
