FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 29, 1999 |
Contact: Karen Davis at (757) 678-7875 |
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We rejoice with our friends and colleagues throughout the world over the news that the European Parliament voted on January 28, 1999, to prohibit the use of battery cages for hens used for egg production from January 1, 2009. Having adopted twenty "spent" hens from a battery complex in North Carolina just last week, we've been experiencing firsthand the joy of watching these dear, brave hens Walking To Freedom After A Life In Cages. Our new, and for the time being, almost featherless, friends symbolize the liberation of their European sisters and, ultimately, their sisters around the world. "It is time for the United States and Canada to climb aboard the Freedom for Battery Hens Ban-Wagon," says Karen Davis, United Poultry Concerns president and author of Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs. "It's time for these countries to face the fact that a hen in a cage puts not only heaven in a rage, but, more importantly, the vast majority of people, who can do something about it." United Poultry Concerns holds that until battery cages have been discontinued, our species stands condemned of a criminal relationship with the living world. The moral courage and persistence of the animal advocacy movement in the Member States of the European Union, and the high courage and basic decency shown by the European Parliament, have lighted the way for those of us who are fighting to get the U.S. Department of Agriculture to formally recognize that chickens are animals and that so- called "poultry" are farm animals. The European Parliament's vote is a victory for the birds and for our struggle on their behalf in a country that, to date, accords to birds and to farmed animals no federal protection at all. It is an honor and a privilege to thank, most especially, Compassion In World Farming (CIWF) and Farm Animal Welfare Network (FAWN, formerly Chickens' Lib), for making the earth a truly better place.
![]() PO Box 150 Machipongo, VA 23405-0150 757-678-7875 www.upc-online.org
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(UPC Applauds European Parliament Vote To Ban Battery Cages) |