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The majority of egg-laying hens in India spend their lives confined to small, wire battery cages. HSI
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Hens in battery cages lack the freedom to walk or fully stretch their wings. HSI
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Hens in Indian battery cage facilities live in crowded and often unsanitary conditions. HSI
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Factory farming practices treat living animals like machines. HSI
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This factory farm in India houses 50,000 hens in battery cages. HSI
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Each of the 50,000 hens crowded together in this battery cage facility is an individual, sentient, unique being. HSI
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When the hens stick their heads out of the cages to access feed and water, their necks rub against the cage wires, resulting in the types of injuries seen here. HSI
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A worker wades through raw manure as he collects eggs. HSI
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This deep-litter egg production system is a more humane alternative to battery cages. Other cage-free systems, such as multi-tiered aviaries, are common in Europe, and could be introduced to India as well. HSI
HSI’s Factory Farming Campaign in India seeks to raise awareness about the conditions under which animals in India are reared, and to empower both activists and every-day consumers to live more compassionate and sustainable lives.
The vast majority of commercial egg and meat products in India come from intensive confinement facilities that do not provide for many of the animals’ most basic needs and that impose significant stress on them.
Egg-laying hens spend their lives confined in small, wire battery cages stacked several tiers high and extending down long rows. Each cage is so cramped that the birds are unable to stretch their wings, walk, or engage in many of their natural behaviors. More than 200 million laying hens in India are confined in this manner at any given time.
In addition to animal abuse, a landmark two-year study released by the prestigious Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production concluded that intensive confinement facilities pose unacceptable risks to public health and the environment. Other studies have shown that the crowded, stressful and unsanitary conditions typical of these facilities are ripe for the development of disease, including avian influeza (“bird flu”).
Learn more about HSI’s campaign to end battery cage use.