Confining egg-laying hens in cages cruel: Dalai Lama

DHARAMSALA - Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has decried the practice of egg-laying hens being confined in cages and has urged the industry to be more humane to the birds.

“The abuse we inflict on hens has always been particularly disturbing to me and I have always been particularly concerned toward how these animals are treated in industrial food production. I am troubled to learn about the practice of confining egg-laying hens in tiny cages,” the Dalai Lama said in a letter written to the Humane Society of the US.

“In these cages, birds cannot engage in their natural behaviour such as spreading their wings, laying eggs in a nesting area, perching, scratching at the ground, even standing on a solid surface. Each hen has less space to live than the very sheet of paper I have written this letter on,” the Nobel laureate said.

“Turning these defenceless animals into egg-producing machines with no consideration for their welfare whatsoever is a degradation of our own humanity. Switching to cage-free eggs would reduce the suffering of these animals,” he suggested.

N.G. Jayasimha, Humane Society’s campaign manager in India, told IANS the Dalai Lama expressed his support in the wake of the US movement against cruel and inhumane cages in factory egg farms.