The Action Animal Rescue Team conducted its 20th successful rescue at the Happy Hens battery egg factory in the early hours of Wednesday February 16, 2000. Five sick and dying battery hens were rescued and taken to a vet for treatment. (A photo of a bald hen rescued during the raid is seen below).

The team began their rescues at "Happy Hens" - Victoria's largest battery egg establishment in June 1994, and since this time have rescued 287 battery hens from the property, all desperately in need of veterinary treatment. 79 of these birds unfortunately had to be euthanased by vets due to the severity of their condition.

Happy Hens Egg World is located approximately an hour and a half west of Melbourne and has nine huge warehouse-type sheds holding approximately 22,000 hens each. There is an electrified wire that runs under the feedtroughs that shocks any birds who try to retrieve their eggs.

The rescue team have continually gathered video and photographic evidence of violations to the State's Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and Code of Practice during each and every inspection over the past six years. The farm's response has been to dramatically increase security in their desperate and failed attempts to keep the rescue team out.

The latest rescue, filmed by a television crew from A Current Affair, saw the team get through a two metre high electrified fence, go past security sensor lights and run a gauntlet of trained guard dogs to access one of the sheds. They succeeded and were able to rescue five hens and also bring out video footage and photographs documenting the abuse inside the sheds. (their inspection had to be brief, only 40 minutes, due to circumstances.)

The five sick hens had been unattended to and were left to suffer in their tiny wire cages by the owners of the property. The vet had to immediately euthanase a very debilitated bird who weighed only 1.3 kilograms (normal weight 2 - 2.4). She could barely stand, was anemic and had diarrhea. A second hen, also debilitated, and suffering a severe bleeding prolapse died later after the vet stitched her prolapse into place. It was simply too late. A third hen (1.6 K) had a large abscess full of caseous material on the right side of her face cleaned out by the vet, it was obviously affecting her ability to eat. The bird was given a poor prognosis should the swelling return. A fourth hen was missing an eye and the fifth hen was virtually featherless. There were many others in the shed needing help, but we couldn't carry any more.

A Current Affair plans to air this story nationally one day next week.

"Happy Hens (which apart from the awful cages is now a well-managed unit where the birds are not defeathered or debeaked and do look healthy)"
- Peter Barber, State Director, RSPCA VIC
(part of a September 6, 1999 letter to a member of the public concerned about conditions at Happy Hens)

For more information about the Action Animal Rescue Team, contact Patty Mark at amag@ihug.com.au