Dalai Lama speaks out against caging egg-laying hens

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Wednesday expressed distress over the confinement of egg-laying hens in tiny battery cages and urged for an end to the fowl-abuse. In a statement, the Nobel laureate decried the cruel treatment meted out to hens by the egg industry and urged people to
switch over to eggs produced by cage-free hens.

“The abuse we inflict on hens has always been particularly disturbing to me and I have always been particularly concerned toward how these animals are treated in industrial food production,” he said.

Expressing his pain over the practice of confining egg-laying hens in tiny cages, the Dalai Lama said that in such cages, the birds cannot engage in their natural behaviour like spreading their wings, perching, scratching the ground, standing on a solid surface or laying eggs in a nesting area.

“Each hen has less space to live than the sheet of paper I have written this letter on. Turning these defenceless animals into egg-producing machines with no consideration for their welfare whatsoever is a degradation of our own humanity. Switching over to cage-free eggs would reduce the suffering of these creatures,” he urged.

The Dalai Lama’s statement comes as part of a major international movement against cruel and inhumane cages that is taking root against factory egg farms, including a campaign by the Humane Society International.  Read Article