Welfare Council says battery cages needed

01 September 1997

Welfare Council says battery cages needed

THE Farm Animal Welfare Council said battery cages could not be scrapped
because of a risk of aggression and cannibalism among free-range and barn-reared
chickens.

Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) recently released a report calling for the European Union to ban battery cages. CIWF maintains that the aggressive behaviour could be abated by keeping hens in small groups with room for perching, foraging and laying eggs in nests.

Animal welfare campaigners rejected the claim that the animals exhibited aggressive traits when uncaged.