Animal Liberation ACT
PO Box 320 Civic Square Canberra ACT 2608 ph:02-6247 4358 info@al-act.org
PRESS RELEASE 25th FEBRUARY 2010
IMPROVEMENTS IN CAGED HEN WELFARE?
Reference: IMPROVING THE WELFARE OF CAGED HENS
Published: February 23, 2010, 7:54 am
Section: Jon Stanhope, MLA | Media Releases
Animal Liberation ACT has welcomed ACT Government’s moves towards making Codes of Practice
for animal welfare mandatory, but reminds consumers and voters that these regulations will still fail
to provide even a minimum of protection for caged hens.
Animal Liberation ACT president, Jo Morgan, comments, “These regulations will not save a
single hen from spending her whole life in a tiny cage where she cannot engage in any of the
behaviours that are essential to her welfare – such as being able to exercise, perch, nest, dust
bathe, and lay her eggs in private.”
At the moment, the Codes are voluntary and their only legal function (under Section 20 of the
Animal Welfare Act 1992) is to provide a defence for any action that would otherwise be considered
an act of cruelty.
“Providing an animal in your care with adequate exercise is a requirement under the Animal
Welfare Act,” explains Ms Morgan, “but, because keeping hens in cages for their entire lives is
permitted under the Code of Practice, hundreds of thousands of hens, every single year, in the
ACT alone, are deprived of even the most basic of their exercise needs.”
In terms of the proposed regulations themselves, Animal Liberation is marginally more positive:
“We are pleased the Government is finally moving to make the provision of adequate food and
water to caged hens mandatory,” notes Ms Morgan. “Better fifty years late than never. The
real question will be whether the Government will make any effort to enforce the new
mandatory provisions.”
Animal Liberation is especially concerned about the hens that are routinely abandoned and die in
Parkwood’s manure pits.
Ms Morgan elaborates, “Regulation of the food and water supplied to the cages, if it is
enforced, is all very well, but unless it is accompanied by enforced regulation to ensure that
hens are prevented from falling or being dropped into the manure pits below, thousands of
ACT hens will continue to die of hunger and thirst, every single year.”
Footage of the conditions of some of the hundreds of hens rescued from Parkwood’s manure pits
can be viewed on Youtube at:
Media contact: Jo Morgan 0411 099 040 jovegan@bigpond.com
NEWS 
