You might think buying cage-free eggs is in the best interest of chickens, especially if it forces battery farmers to change their practices. The total abolition of caged poultry farms would be seen as a major moral victory; at least for the chickens. But what do the chickens think?
As a philosophy professor who’s worked on food issues for my entire career, I’ve come to believe that questions of animal welfare are more complicated than they seem at first glance. It’s not a clear choice which of the possible living conditions for egg-laying hens – furnished cages, cage-free systems, free-range setups – serve them the best.
What does humanity owe chickens, anyway?
The philosophical question of whether animals deserve any kind of moral consideration has been debated since at least the ancient Greeks.
At one far end of the spectrum are those who say nonhumans cannot be regarded as proper subjects of moral concern. Some hold this on the basis of divine revelation – the other animals were put here for humankind to use as they see fit – while others deny that animals have the kind of subjectivity or experience that could give rise to a moral duty or obligation on our part. The 16th-century philosopher Rene Descartes likened animals to machines.
All the way at the other end of the spectrum are those who argue that what we owe to animals is not unlike what we owe to each other. We should not kill them, nor should we cause them pain or suffering save under highly unusual circumstances. We certainly should not eat them.
Eggs occupy a theoretically ambiguous place on this spectrum, as it is possible to produce them without killing any chickens. Nevertheless modern egg production does involve killing chickens. First, virtually all male chicks are destroyed within a few moments of hatching (though the egg industry is looking into technologies that determine the sex of fertilized eggs rather than waiting for chicks to hatch).
And egg producers will not bear the expense of continuing to feed hens after they have gotten too old to lay eggs. When the rate of lay declines, henhouses are “depopulated,” meaning birds are removed and killed. As such, those who occupy the ethical vegetarian end of the animal ethics spectrum are no more supportive of the egg industry than they are of beef or pork production.
Comments
One response to “Are ‘Cage-Free’ Chickens Really Better Off?”
Interesting view point from an American side of things. There was another story from the British side and barn raising was the best for meat production. But with the barn raising there is a limit on the number of birds in a square metre.