This legislative betrayal of the birds, and of the will of the 77 percent of Massachusetts voters in 2016, supports the egg industry.
Multi-tiered facilities are crowded with hens. There is no
“unfettered access to vertical space” in these densely packed
facilities.
A Dec. 20, 2021 article, “Mass. Legislature passes animal welfare
law changes, set to ease egg supply fears,” published in State House
News Service, describes the process whereby “A last-minute
legislative deal to rewrite key sections of a voter-approved animal
welfare law landed on Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk on Monday, less than
two weeks before the scheduled start of new regulations that could
impact the availability of eggs and pork in Massachusetts.”
“After House and Senate negotiators announced a deal on Sunday
night, the branches on Monday quickly agreed to a bill (S 2603)
updating the standards for housing egg-laying hens and delaying by
seven and a half months the start of a ban on the sale of pork
products from cruelly confined animals.”
“The bill overhauls a law voters passed via ballot question in 2016
just weeks before enforcement is set to begin, drawing fierce
criticism from the Humane Farming Association, whose executive
director accused other animal rights groups who support the measure
of being ‘co-opted’ by business interests.”
The article explains that “Under the compromise legislation, farmers
could house hens with a single square foot of floor space per bird
if they are placed in ‘multi-tiered aviaries, partially-slatted
cage-free housing systems or any other cage-free housing system that
provides hens with unfettered access to vertical space.’
Single-level enclosures would still need to offer 1.5 square feet
per hen.”
In fact, single-level enclosures are being replaced industry-wide by
the multi-tiered systems.
As United Poultry Concerns and The Humane Farming Association have
repeatedly observed, these “multi-tiered aviaries” for laying hens,
rather than increasing the hens’ “welfare,” decrease it. The
multi-tiered housing system is designed by the egg industry to pack
more hens into a facility’s volume of space than is possible in a
system in which all the hens in the facility are on the floor in
so-called single-level enclosures.
And, contrary to claims that this multi-tiered housing system
“provides hens with unfettered access to vertical space,” in
reality, it “fetters” their access to the platforms (tiers) above
the floor because the spaces are so overcrowded with hens, there is
no available space for a hen to “access” without landing on other
hens. This situation encourages the hens to “stay put” in their
single square foot of living space per hen while increasing the
likelihood of broken and fractured leg and wing bones in hens who
try to fly up or down without hitting the hens above or below them.
This legislative betrayal of the birds, and of the will of the 77
percent of Massachusetts voters in 2016, supports the egg industry.
It has nothing to do with making an already miserable life better
for the hens.