should caged hens in the uk be made legal, and all hens freerange?

Question

just a thought, the poor chickens must have a hell life, why dont they make it illegal and have them all free range, after all they taste so much better and the hens are happy.

yes sorry ilegal!!

Answer 1

The lower limits of what legally constitutes 'free range' are not much better than battery conditions.
I remember when they had a whole field to themselves and ate worms. btw i didnt become allergic to eggs until I started eating battery hen eggs. Coincidence? I think not.

Answer 2

Im really lucky to have my own hens which run freely around the farm , people are really surprised when they taste my eggs how different they taste and look , I would never buy supermarket eggs again. That picture is awful and the owners should be caged , a happy hen gives a great egg . keep up the good work !!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 3

In short, yes! I know first hand what lovely creatures hens are with a lovely individual personality. That's why I keep chickens, so that I don't have to support the battery hen industry.

The best places to get eggs are farm shops, farmers markets and city farms, because they're fresher, and more money goes to the farmer rather than Tescos.

Answer 4

because it's not a viable option if we still want to eat eggs as a nation.
The population is exploding and free range hens simply cant lay fast enough to provide for the nation.
Its the same as Gm foods. People may object to them and want more organic foods on the shelves, but, the speed at which the human population is expanding, Gm foods are the only way to go because it's the only method available to provide for our needs. Without arftificial methods, there would be world wide famine within decades.

Answer 5

Yes, if by caged you mean battery. This would also mean banning the importation of battery eggs from other countries, and the price of eggs (and things with eggs in them) would go up. I personally think it's worth it - if I can't afford an animal product produced to what I think is an acceptable standard of welfare then I don't buy it.

Part of the problem if you're trying to avoid battery-farmed eggs is that products label where they get the egg they use from. For instance Quorn is produced using battery eggs, which tends to run counter to the ethos of most of its vegetarian consumers.

Free-range should be redefined as well - the standards are better than "battery" (couldn't really be worse), but currently not that much better than "barn".

Wouldn't it be fantastic if we all voted with our wallets?

Answer 6

Yes, there's a lot of cruelty involved - but as consumers, we insist on the cheapest - so we'd have to pay more for our free range as supply would drop dramatically due to lack of space to allow all hens 'free range' !

Answer 7

I agree to a certain degree. the trouble with this is that the consumer wants cheap eggs and to facilitate this demand eggs would be imported from countries with much lower standards than we have in this country. It would be better to try to educate people to change of their own free will to buying free range. if they still want to buy eggs from caged birds because they are cheap- at least if they come from this country their welfare can be monitored more closely.

Answer 8

there is a reason why there are caged hens - supply and demand, we stupid brits keep buying the cheap crap - so they keep producing - until we all stop buying those poor little hens will be treated like poo!

Answer 9

You mean ILLEGAL? What does caged mean? They should certainly have room to move around, but does one hen in an aircraft hanger count as caged?

Answer 10

All animal's / birds should live their lives as naturally as possible.