Kind Education Official Magazine of ThinkKind Inc.
Summer 2015
Friend
or Food? Why do we love one and eat the other?
Inside:
Not Just for Humans:
Animals who show empathy
Kind Reading:
Regulars:
Cruelty free recipes, news, competitions & activities
Book reviews for kind kids Kind Education
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Te a Li chi nk n ed g G C to t uid ur he e ric A A ul us va um tr ila al b ia le n
Human Rights for Chimps: Are some animals ‘persons’ or ‘things’?
Message from the Editor Imagine if people throughout history never bothered asking any questions. Imagine that when they looked up at the night sky, they never wondered what those bright white dots were. Or if they watched an apple drop to the ground, never asked why it didn’t go upwards, or in any other direction for that matter! Asking questions about the world is so important, and just because we’ve always known something to be a certain way, doesn’t mean we should stop ourselves from investigating. If the scientist Isaac Newton never wondered why objects dropped to the ground instead of going left, right or upwards, he never would’ve been inspired to discover the laws of gravity. If ancient astronomers in Greece and China never asked themselves what those bright white dots were in the night sky, humans may never have discovered how vast the universe actually is beyond our own planet. This issue of Kind Education is all about asking important questions about ourselves and our relationship with other animals. They are questions of ethics – questions to do with right and wrong, good and bad – which many people never really think about. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers, but don’t let that stop you – sometimes asking questions is more important than finding the answers. Valerie ThinkKind founder and director
4 Human Rights for Chimps: Are some animals ‘persons’ or ‘things’? A group of people in the United States are trying to win legal rights for chimpanzees, to stop other people from treating them as property. Find out what happened and what this all means for the way humans use other animals.
8 Animal Empathy Looks like we’re not the only animals who show empathy! Meet some of the world’s kindest animals who might even give some humans a run for their money.
6 COVER STORY: Friend or Food? Why is it OK to eats pigs, chickens and cows, but not dogs and cats? Is there a good reason for why we eat some animals and not others?
10 9 What is empathy anyway? What does empathy mean, and why is it so important? Take the Empathy Quiz and see how you score.
Yummy foods that do no harm! Cruelty free recipes that are super easy to make! Plus, we share some tips on how you can make sure your food causes the least amount of harm to other people, animals and the planet.
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11 Kind reading Some awesome books about animal issues and kindness that we know you’ll just love. Plus, write your own book review and enter to win!
Is it too “extreme” to give chickens room to stretch their wings? You wouldn’t think so, right? But the egg industry does. What is life really like for an egg-laying hen?
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DISCLAIMER: ThinkKind Inc. is a registered Australian charity. We are a volunteer-based organisation and rely on the generous support of our members, supporters and contributors. Please note that the views expressed in this issue do not necessarily reflect those of our organisation or of our sponsors, nor do we guarantee the accuracy, completeness or legality of the material provided, despite our greatest efforts. Every effort has been made to ensure that no copyright breaches have occurred. For enquiries please PRINTED ON 100% RECYCLED PAPER contact admin@thinkkind.org. Publication design by NXL Design.
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- Animal News -
EIGHT-YEAR-OLD KAYLA SPREADS AWARENESS ABOUT PUPPY FARMING
raphic.com/ Image via http://animals.nationalgeog
Dear ThinkKind, My name is Kayla and I am eight years old. Last year I read your magazine at school and was shocked to learn about puppy factories. I thought the story about Oscar was really inspiring and I felt like I wanted to do more to help. I told my teacher about Oscar’s Law and she said she hadn’t heard about it either. We started talking during class and the next day we did a research project about puppy farming.
BEACHES CLOSE AFTER MULTIPLE SHARK SIGHTINGS There has been an increase in shark sightings this summer in Australian beaches, including Newcastle, Bondi and Perth,
forcing some of the beaches to temporarily close. Unfortunately there has also been an increase in shark attacks in recent years. Scientists say that the reasons why sharks are swimming closer to the shore are mostly caused by human activity. It is believed that the most significant factor of all is that humans are overfishing, depleting the sharks’ food source in the ocean and forcing them to swim closer to land to find food.
NATIVE WILDLIFE AS PETS? The New South Wales government is planning to In the last week of term, allow people twelve of my classmates wrote to keep native a letter to our local shopping wildlife as centre to ask them to stop pets, such as selling puppies from puppy Photo by John Paoloni (http://www.ifaw.org/) factories. So far we have 28 birds, reptiles signatures and when we reach and some MITTENS SENT FROM AROUND 50, we are going to hand mammals. But the idea is strongly THE WORLD TO HELP INJURED deliver the letter ourselves. opposed by animal welfare groups, KOALAS who believe it could cause many Recent bushfires in South I think puppy factories are different problems. Leanne Taylor Australia, Victoria and New South cruel and are a huge waste. I hope people adopt dogs and from WIRES said that people often Wales have taken a toll on local save lives instead of supporting changed their minds after buying wildlife including kangaroos, joeys the puppy factory businesses, a native animal and end up putting and koalas, with many animals and I hope I can help people them back into the wild, where suffering from serious burns. The learn more. the animals are unable to survive. International Fund for Animal People were also reportedly Welfare asked volunteers online Yours sincerely, Kayla feeding cow’s milk to kangaroos if they could sew and joeys, which makes cotton mittens ink th u them extremely sick. to protect yo do t Wha tive about keeping na the injured Let us wildlife as pets? LOVEABLE CHICKENS KEEP animals’ burnt at to us know by writing ur THE ELDERLY COMPANY! Yo g. paws. Josey or admin@thinkkind. blished in A program has been introduced in the Sharrad from letter may be pu Kind the next issue of United Kingdom to help older people keep the organisation ine.. az ag m ion at uc Ed hens as companions! The program is designed was surprised to help older people overcome loneliness and by what happened isolation, and has been a great success. 87-year-old next. Within a few Thomas Cresswell says before he started caring for days, they received thousands of his chickens, he would often feel very lonely. Now he handmade mittens from caring says he has made a lot of new friends. Many people people all over the world, including are surprised to learn that chickens often make Australia, the United Kingdom, wonderful, affectionate and clever pets. America and Russia!
Image via HenPower on Facebook
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Are some animals
‘persons’ or ‘things’? By Anna McHugh
Nonhuman Rights Project: Tommy the chimp lives in a dark basement cage in New York.
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hat is the difference between a person and a thing? Does a ‘thing’ have to be an object? Or just not alive? At the moment, the law in most countries says that animals are things. They don’t have ‘personhood’, so they don’t get the rights and protections that people do. ‘THINGS’ DON’T HAVE RIGHTS It’s illegal to steal a car. It’s illegal to set fire to a car and dump it on the street. This isn’t because it hurts the car, but because it hurts another person – the owner or the people on the street. The car is just a thing. It doesn’t have feelings or opinions, it can be bought, sold, and traded, or kept in poor condition, or worked too hard, and it doesn’t matter because it’s not a person. Only persons have rights to protect them. This is exactly how most countries’ legal systems treat animals. SHOULD WE TREAT ANIMALS AS THINGS? One group of lawyers is attempting to change that. In 2012, the Nonhuman Rights Project in the United States became interested in six captive chimpanzees. Because the chimps were only ‘things’, they couldn’t apply to the court themselves – so the group applied on their behalf. They asked the court to give the animals what is called a ‘writ of habeas corpus’ – to recognise that the animals had a right to physical freedom and safety, just as any person has. The court rejected this application, because it didn’t believe that the animals had these rights; they saw the chimps as ‘things’, not ‘persons’. Sadly, two of the chimps are now dead, but Hercules, Leo, Tommy and Kiko remain. They are now at the centre of an important battle about
Chimps can use tools, have opinions and preferences, and can empathise with others, just like humans
whether these intelligent and sensitive animals, humankind’s closest relative, should be considered persons or things. WILL SOME ANIMALS EVER BE CONSIDERED PERSONS? The Nonhuman Rights Project hasn’t given up, and has applied to a higher court – the Court of Appeals. They are asking for the whole law about personhood to be revised. This would give the chimps, and all animals like them, two important rights: bodily liberty (the right not to be imprisoned) and bodily integrity (the right not to be experimented on). Only persons can have these – things can’t. FACTS ABOUT CHIMPS There’s a big difference between an organism like a jellyfish and a chimpanzee. Chimps are able to think like people – they have selfawareness and extremely complex cognitive skills. They use tools, have opinions and preferences, and can empathise with others: just like elephants, dolphins, and whales. When the legal definition of a person was formed, it was believed that only human beings could think this way, so only they are entitled to the special protection of being a ‘person’. But science has changed this: leading naturalists like Dr Jane Goodall have shown that chimps’ thinking patterns are just as sophisticated and complex as many people, and that they fit the profile which courts have used in the past to recognise legal personhood. SOME HUMANS WERE ONCE TREATED AS THINGS Until an English court case in 1772, human slaves were simply Kind Education
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‘things’. They were human beings, but the law didn’t recognise them as persons. They had the same status as Tommy and Kiko. So ‘human being’ and ‘legal person’ don’t mean the same things. With this court case (famously called Somerset v Stewart), the law changed; it accepted that the definition of ‘legal person’ had to expand to include all human beings. Now the Nonhuman Rights Project wants to expand it again, to cover animals with thinking skills as complex as our own. WHAT WOULD IT MEAN IF CHIMPS DO GAIN SIMILAR RIGHTS TO HUMANS? Zoos, pharmaceutical companies, academic researchers, and private individuals who keep chimps as pets will all suffer if they can no longer use animals like Tommy and Kiko for amusement, companionship, and sometimes horrific tests. Steven Wise, Director of the Nonhuman Rights Project, accepts that this is going to be a long and hard fight, but his group is committed to changing the law so that there is a fundamental change in the way we look at animals – and ourselves. Do you think certain animals like chimpanzees should be treated as persons? Email your answer to us at admin@thinkkind.org.
Frie o Foo
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HY DO WE LOVE ONE AND EAT THE OTHER? Most of us would never think about eating a dog, cat, rabbit or guinea pig – so what make them so different and special compared to the other animals we do eat? This is a question some people find themselves asking, and it’s a very difficult one to find a good answer for. Most people believe that it would be wrong, bad or even cruel to eat animals like cats and dogs, but they would also think it would be perfectly OK to eat fish, pigs, goats, sheep, cows and even baby animals like lambs. If someone asked you the question “Why eat a pig and not a dog?”, chances are the first thing you’ll think of is that, well, we keep dogs as pets.
But a lot of people keep pigs, dogs and chickens as pets too, and yet it still seems perfectly OK to eat them. So how can we explain and justify why we choose to eat some animals and not others? MORAL RELATIVISM ‘Moral relativism’ is the view that moral judgements – what the majority of people think is wrong and right – is all relative, which means that it changes from one culture to another, or across different periods throughout history. There a many countries for instance, including China, Vietnam and South Korea, where it’s normal to eat dogs. Other cultures believe it is wrong to eat pig meat, such as ham, bacon and pork, often for religious reasons. Kind Education
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DO WE ONLY EAT LESS INTELLIGENT ANIMALS? Some people say that humans don’t eat dogs and cats because it’s wrong to eat animals who are highly intelligent, sensitive and complex. However, pigs are proven to be smarter than dogs. Chickens, cows, goats and sheep are also highly intelligent, emotional and complex animals. All of the animals we eat can feel pain, fear, stress and loneliness, not just cats and dogs. But Peter Singer, a philosopher and writer, argues that even if food animals were not as intelligent as dogs and cats, they are still able to feel pain and suffering, which is, in his opinion, the most important factor to consider.
end or ? od THE ETHICAL DILEMMA The question of whether we should eat other animals is an extremely important one, because it has to do with the real feelings, wellbeing and lives of other living beings. Many people argue that because humans don’t need to eat animals to survive or be healthy, we should give animals the right to live natural lives free from pain, fear and suffering. This has led millions of people around the world to become vegan or vegetarian, because they believe that if they wouldn’t eat a dog or cat, why would they also eat a pig, cow, chicken or fish? HOW ELSE DO WE TREAT ANIMALS DIFFERENTLY? Another reason why this question is so important is because the law in Australia treats the animals we eat differently to the animals we
don’t eat. For example, it would be illegal to keep your dog in a tiny cage for its entire life, where he couldn’t move, turn around or even lay down. Yet millions of chickens in Australia are kept this way to lay eggs, and it’s perfect legal to do. Similarly, it would be illegal to cut off parts of your cat’s body without any pain relief, yet in pig farms, piglets have their tails, genitals and teeth cut out routinely without any pain relief. CRITICAL THINKING ACTIVITY – SHOULD HUMANS STOP EATING OTHER ANIMALS? It’s always important to form your own opinions based on facts, research and evidence. Think about whether human beings should stop eating other animals. Start by writing down three smaller questions you can research to help you answer your Kind Education
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question, such as ‘Can animals feel pain?’, ‘Do humans need to eat other animals to survive?’ or ‘Is it fair to eat some animals but not others?’ Think about the type of questions that are important to you personally, which will help you shape your own opinion at the end of the activity. Draw a table with three columns and three rows, and leave one row for each question. In the first column write your questions, in the second column write what you have discovered during your research, and in the third column write the source. If you don’t come up with an answer at the end, don’t feel bad – it’s a very difficult question that people have been debating for years! The main thing is that you explore the question and think about it critically based on the research you discover. Good luck!
Animal Empathy
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or a long time humans have believed that they were the only animals who were capable of feeling empathy – the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. But for years, pet owners have insisted that this was not the case. Most people who spend time with other animals, such as their pets, claim that animals know when others are feeling sad, angry, happy or upset. Many people also say that their pets show love, care and concern for them, just like humans do. And now researchers have proven what pet owners have known all along! Here are just 5 examples of nonhuman animals who feel and display empathy.
3. RAVENS Many birds display empathy. Researchers have discovered that ravens console their friends who are feeling stressed after a fight. The large black birds do this by sitting next to the distressed bird and cleaning its feathers with its beak or gently engaging in beakto-beak or beak-to-body touching. Ravens are also much more likely to console the victim of the fight rather than the aggressor.
1. ELEPHANTS Elephants show great concern for others. When an elephant notices that another elephant is stressed out, it uses its trunk to gently stroke the suffering elephant, and will make a sweet-sounding chirp. Researchers describe the sound as being very similar to the sound human adults might make to calm a baby. Elephants have also been spotted helping baby elephants climb up muddy banks and out of holes and break through electric fences. They have also been spotted plucking out tranquilising darts from their friends, and spraying dust on others’ wounds.
2. PIGS Scientists in the Netherlands have found that pigs are extremely sensitive to each other’s feelings, and can tell when other pigs are feeling happy or stressed. The researchers also found that the pigs could predict whether something good or bad would happen by observing the reactions of other pigs, such as wagging their tails to show happiness or moving their ears back to show stress. Pigs have also been known to help other pigs escape from their pens by pushing up and unlocking the hinges with their snouts.
4. RATS Scientists discovered that untrained laboratory rats will help free trapped rats by opening the doors of their containers. The rats would not open the door if there was nothing inside the container, or if there was a toy rat inside. Even when the researchers offered chocolate to the free rats, the rats would choose to free their friends first rather than enjoying the treat. And after they freed their friends, the rats would also make sure that their friend had some chocolate too!
5. CHIMPANZEES Like elephants, many studies have found that chimpanzees show a great deal of empathy for others. The animal psychologist LadyginaKohts wrote about her cheeky chimpanzee friend Joni, who would never come down from the roof when he was called. LadyginaKohts said that the only way to get him off the roof was by pretending to cry! Joni would quickly run down and gently touch her face with his hands. The young chimpanzee would then run around the house looking for the person or animal who upset his friend!
Why do you think people don’t believe that animals can feel empathy, compassion and love? Write us a letter at admin@thinkkind.org for your chance to be published in the next issue of Kind Education magazine. Kind Education
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WHAT IS EMPATHY ANYWAY?
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eeling towards another person or animal is a natural human reaction that we’ve all experienced. We feel love for our friends, our family and our pets. We experience happiness and joy towards other people, and sometimes also anger, sadness and disappointment. There are so many feelings and emotions that drive our decisions and actions every day. But there is a special kind of feeling that lets us do something pretty amazing – it helps us to understand and feel the feelings of others.
This feeling is called empathy, and it lets us know when another person or animal is feeling pain, suffering, sadness, relief, joy, anger or excitement – feelings that we all know and share. Empathy helps us put ourselves in another person’s shoes, imagine what they are feeling, and understand why they are feeling that way. It’s an important feeling to have because it helps us to be more patient with other people, less angry and frustrated when they say or do something wrong, and more ready to help them when they’re in need. Sometimes it’s hard to be empathetic towards somebody when we’re feeling annoyed, angry, distracted or upset. This doesn’t make you a bad person – empathy is not always our first natural reaction. But there are ways you can train yourself to feel stronger empathy towards others. Not only will it make you feel happier and more peaceful, it really does make our planet a better, kinder and more just place to live in! Kind Education
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Complete the Empathy Quiz below and find which areas you would like to improve in when it comes to feeling empathy for others.
THE EMPATHY QUIZ Circle YES or NO for the following questions to see how empathetic you are. If you answer NO to any of them, think about some positive changes you could make and share your ideas with your parent or teacher. 1. I often think about how NO others feel. YES 2. I don’t make fun of others because I can imagine what NO it feels like. YES 3. I listen to others when they tell me about what they’re NO going through. YES 4. I try to understand to other people’s point of view. YES
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5. I understand that not everyone reacts to situations in the same way I NO do. YES
- YUMMY FOODS that do no harm -
What you need: • Round rice paper sheets • 1 large cucumber; chop in thin strips • 1 large carrot; sliced short and thin • Sliced avocado • Shredded purple cabbage • Handful of mint leaves • Soy sauce • Peanut sauce • Sweet chili sauce • Fresh lime juice • Optional: Flavoured tofu strips or soy protein strips • Optional: Vermicelli noodles (to make a more substantial meal) Method: *Rice paper rolls can be made well in advance or on the spot at the dinner table. 1. Start by filling a large bowl of hot water. Then one by one dip and turn your rice paper untill it’s soft. This should only take 3-5 seconds.
Easy Peasy Rice Paper Rolls 2. At this stage, rice paper rolls can be filled however you would like with the ingredients laid out together. 3. Roll the filled paper till halfway, and then fold sides into the centre. Roll the remainder to complete one roll. 4. Once rolls are all complete start making the sauce by combining
Summer Pesto Pasta
2-3 tablespoons of peanut sauce, 1 tablespoon of sweet chili sauce and a dash of soy sauce to taste. Mix together and serve! Makes 15-20
What you need: • 350-400g pasta; spaghetti, linguine can be used • Handful of fresh basil leaves • Fresh oregano
• 1 clove garlic; diced • 3 teaspoons of lightly toasted pine nuts • Olive oil • Seasoning (salt & pepper)
Method: 1. Boil water (about ¾ full) in a large pot and salt the water to taste. Cook pasta till al-dente and remove from the heat to drain. 2. Using a food processor, blend together the basil leaves, nuts, garlic and 1-teaspoon olive oil. Blend till almost smooth. Season the mixture with salt and pepper. 3. While the pasta is still hot toss through the pesto mixture and use some of the pasta water to mix if the pasta seems dry. Serve! Serves 6 people
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ow to make sure your foods have caused the LEAST harm to other people, animals and the planet Kind food choices are foods which cause the least harm to others when they are produced. Sometimes it is difficult to find out which foods cause no harm. A good way to find out is to ask yourself important questions including: 1. Has an animal been harmed or made to suffer for this food? (i.e. pigs, chickens or cows)
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2. Has a person been mistreated in order to produce this food? (i.e. tea or coffee produced in countries with no laws to protect workers) 3. Has this food contributed to the destruction of natural animal habitat (e.g. palm oil)
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hich foods cause most harm to animals? Some examples of foods which cause great harm to animals include:
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- Kind Reading -
Chained by Lynne Kelly
The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
A Home for Dakota by Jan Zita Grover & Nancy Lane
After ten-year-old Hastin’s family borrows some money to pay for his sister’s hospital bill, he leaves his village in northern India to take a job as an elephant keeper in a circus and work off the debt. But as soon as he arrives at the circus, he realises he made a terrible mistake. His boss, Timir, has a bad temper and wants Hastin to help him trap a wild elephant for the circus. Hastin falls in love with the wild elephant, Nandita, and is heartbroken when his young elephant friend gets caught in the trap. Nandita is chained when she is
not performing and hurt with a hook until she learns to perform her tricks perfectly. Hastin tries to protect Nandita knowing that the only way they will both survive is if he can find a way for them to escape. Chained is a well-written and moving story with a meaningful message about animal captivity and child labour. The book also includes a message at the beginning of each chapter about the behaviour of elephants, which teaches readers about how much we have in common with these majestic creatures.
The Gregg family loves hunting, but their eight-year-old neighbour just can't stand it. She tries to talk them out of it, but the Greggs only laugh at her. After she makes many pleas for them to stop, the little girl turns her Magic Finger on them. Now the Greggs are a family of birds, and like it or not, they're going to have
to find out how it feels to be on the other end of the gun. Roald Dahl creates a very amusing and engaging story in The Magic Finger, with fun illustrations by Quentin Blake. It is simple to read and encourages us to always try and put ourselves in another’s shoes.
Meet Dakota, a female breeding dog rescued from a puppy mill. The book explains how puppy mills work, and is a great book to read with a little brother or sister, because it’s so easy to understand. Dakota lives in a small cage in a cold shed and never gets to walk in the sunshine or on soft grass. She is scared when she is taken into a home where there is bright light and hard slippery floors. Dakota is a lucky puppy mill
dog. She is rescued by Emma who cared for her, gave her love and affection, and patiently waited until Dakota was ready to find a home. The last page of the book explains what a puppy mill is and how to help dogs like Dakota. It’s Write a a wonderful Book Review and WIN! Tell us how a book has story of home changed the way you think with beautiful about or feel towards other animals and WIN one of illustrations too.
• Caged eggs: Chickens are kept in tiny cages for their entire lives in order to produce eggs. • Dairy: Mother cows are separated from their babies at birth. Many of their calves are killed if they are born male, because males cannot produce milk. These calves are called ‘bobby calves’. • Pig meat (e.g. pork and bacon): Piglets are often castrated without pain relief and sows (female pigs) are kept in sow stalls, which are
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two copies of A Home for Dakota!
tiny metal crates, for long periods of times. Pigs rarely or never get to see the sunlight or spend time outdoors.
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ow do I choose kind foods? The most important thing to do is to do your research. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and be careful to make sure the information you find is accurate and unbiased. Check out our last issue of Kind Education to learn some helpful research tips!
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of the farmers. Bigger cages for hens would cost farmers more money to build and maintain, and will also make egg prices go up for consumers at the supermarket. WHAT IS A BATTERY HEN? Imagine spending your whole life in a tiny dark cage where you couldn’t move, stretch or enjoy the sunlight and grass. Sounds a bit like a nightmare doesn’t it? This is what life is like for a battery hen. Battery hens are egg-laying hens that are confined in battery cages for their entire lives. The size of a battery cage is little more than an A4 sized piece of paper. Most eggs are produced by battery hens, unless the packaging on the carton clearly says otherwise. A VICTORY FOR HENS IN 2014
Is it too “extreme” to give chickens room to stretch their wings? The egg industry says so
There are approximately 11 million hens being kept in battery cages in Australia. Image via Animals Australia.
hanges to caged-egg laws in California are said to be “extreme” by the egg industry in Australia. The new laws in California say that hens must be able to fully extend their limbs and turn around when kept it cages for egg production.
Egg Farmers Australia spokesman John Coward said that egg farmers support some improvements to the conditions of battery hens, but that the changes in California were “a bit of an extreme case.” Coward said that not only does the impacts on the hens need to be considered, but also the expenses
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Last year, Animals Australia asked McDonald’s Australia to end their use of cage eggs. The fast food giant refused, so Animals Australia decided to ask some clever and creative kids for some help. Soon after calling for young Aussie kids to make a video asking McDonald’s to ‘be kinder to chickens’, Animals Australia made the amazing announcement that McDonald’s would end their use of cage eggs by the end of 2017!
“When the whole world is silent, even one voice becomes powerful.” - Malala Yousafzai
Parents and educators can visit www.thinkkind.org.au