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duncan cracks fowl egg injustice

Author:
Sarah Simpson
Publication:
Cowichan Valley Citizen
Publication Date:
February 13, 2008

According to the Vancouver Humane Society as many as 98 per cent of the 26 million egg-laying hens in Canada are cruelly confined to tiny wire battery cages, for their entire lives. With cages so small they can barely move, the birds' feathers often chafe off, opening up sores and even the most instinctive actions like walking and spreading their wings are all but impossible.

 

Already banned in many European countries, on Feb. 11 the City of Duncan did their part to help solve the injustice by passing a motion that encourages Duncan residents and restaurateurs to follow their lead in choosing not to eat battery cage produced eggs.

 

Duncan further resolved that caterers of City-run facilities be requested to use only eggs from free-range or free-run chickens. The recommendation came as a result of the Vancouver Humane Society's appeal to municipalities to stop the brutality.

 

"Normally we don't deal with rural food production things in this council but more and more it's something that everybody has to look at," said Coun. Sharon Jackson. "Every decision that we make about where we buy our food and what kinds of food that we choose to eat and who we choose to support with our food purchasing dollars are all very political decisions. Even at our level of local government we could look at things like battery hens and make a choice that we're not going to participate in that kind of abuse, of any kind of animal, in order to get our eggs and that we would decide if we were going to use a caterer for any City event, we would ask our caterers to use free run or free range eggs."

 

At first councillors were reluctant to second Jackson's motion. Coun. Paul Fletcher eventually raised his hand so that discussion could continue. "It's worthwhile," said Mayor Phil Kent, thanking Fletcher for stepping up. But not everyone agreed it was council's issue to tackle.

 

"There are some problems with the raising of chickens this way," admitted Coun. Mike Caljouw of battery cage egg production. "I don't think we, the City, should be endorsing this. I think there are some things that need to be done but I don't think that a little community like the City should begin with it."

 

Caljouw said raising free-range hens would take up too much land. "Where are they going to come from?" he asked. "We do not have space for that sort of thing."

 

Caljouw added that a mass move to free-range eggs would dramatically decrease production and people do love their eggs. "The unfortunate part is that only the rich will be able to buy eggs because there's not going to be any kind of production. If there's a big demand and no product then prices are going to go up," he said.

 

Jackson said that thinking is way beyond the scope of what she was asking council to consider.

 

"I don't think it's too much to ask," said Jackson. "All we're saying is that we'd like people to make these better choices. Everybody's going to always want to have eggs. I'm not trying to worry about the rest of the world. I'm just saying for us, the next time we cater an event, maybe we'll have to pay an extra $3 so that we can get the kind of eggs that we're asking for. I think that if you want the nutrition and if you want the animals that you eat to be treated well that we have to start in these little ways, even though it seems weird."

 

Fletcher agreed. "Coun. Jackson has a good point," he said. "The difficulty is that is applies to so many other food groups that it's so hard to just identify one and then not take on the rest. There's cows grown locally here that aren't brought up in the best circumstances. There's chickens grown here that are pressed into small cages and I think all we can really do at this point is to encourage people to make wise choices. The idea of asking City suppliers to have non-mass produced eggs is a good idea and I'll support the motion. We've got to start somewhere."

 

Council voted 5-1 in support of the motion.

 

For more information go online and check out: chickenout.ca