PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
BATTERY CAGE FOR EGG LAYING HENS (2 June 1992)

That this House expresses its dismay at the fact that the vast majority of United Kingdom egg laying hens continue to be kept in battery cages; notes that the battery cage frustrates most of a hen's natural behaviour denying her, for example, the privacy to build a nest or the space fully to stretch her wings; notes that the bones of battery hens become so brittle that almost a third of such hens suffer from broken bones by the time they reach the stunning bath in the slaughter house; further notes that the current EC Directive on Battery Hens provides a derisory minimum floor space of 450 sq. cm. per hen, which is less than the size of a sheet of A4 paper; and requests the Government to urge its EC partners to agree to a phase out of the battery cage and to the establishment of proper welfare criteria of the alternative systems for keeping egg laying hens.

Sponsored by:
Mr Ron Davies (Labour)