Faced with a shortage of eggs, the New Zealand SPA advises against adopting a hen

According to animal welfare associations, too often the use of one or more domestic hens to guarantee the supply of eggs takes place at the expense of poultry.

In the midst of the country’s egg shortage, many New Zealanders are making a choice that seems logical: buy one or more chickens. But faced with this dynamic, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty against Animals (SPCA), the equivalent of the French SPA, warns by recalling that hens are not laying machines, reports the Keeper.

The lack of egg supply and therefore the increase in costs that New Zealand is currently experiencing is linked to the ban from 1 January 2023 on the breeding of caged hens, considered incompatible with the good health and welfare of these animals. Hens must now be reared at least in collective spaces in which they can move and which generally contain about sixty birds per unit.

According to professionals, several thousand hens currently lack the ability to lay eggs on farms across the country and a return to normal could take several months. Shop stalls should therefore not fill up early and prices may therefore remain high.

Spike in looking for chickens

To measure New Zealanders’ enthusiasm for chickens, one fact: Over the past seven days, the number of online searches for chicken or chicken-related products has increased by 77% on the country’s largest classifieds and auction site. Trade Me, according to company spokesman James Ryan. On the site, you can buy a hen for between 50 and 200 New Zealand dollars.

But the SCPA warns those who might be tempted to buy a hen to use it as a home egg dispenser.

“I understand that it sounds like a good idea, but please don’t buy a hen if you can’t take care of it long-term. We don’t want to see any more abandonment,” said Gabby Clezy. organization.

Landlords are often misinformed

Because often, explains the association, the new owners “are surprised” to learn that a hen can live more than ten years and does not actually lay for life. Most often, the major laying period lasts about three years and doesn’t begin until several months after birth. Especially since their egg production varies throughout the year.

“They make nice pets. Don’t buy them as egg producers,” Gabby Clezy then calls.

In 2022, the SCPA thus recovered 370 hens, most delivered directly by the owners, abandoned but also seized by the authorities for violation of the legal obligations that allowed the welfare of the poultry. Periods of great popularity for laying hens have systematically been followed by waves of abandonment.

To ensure this well-being, the organization makes several recommendations: it would be preferable to adopt more hens (“at least three”) at the same time because they are social animals. It is also essential to give these animals a clean living space and enough room to move around, and to ensure veterinary care and a sufficiently large and good quality supply of water and food. .

The industry is slowly adapting to the cage ban

The decision to ban individual cage farming was taken in 2012 and the share of poultry reared in this way dropped from 86% back then to 10% in December 2022. Problem, however: the entry into force of the ban it occurred when the industry had not fully realized its transformation.

There are several reasons for this: lack of anticipation, a desire to postpone a costly transition (several million dollars per chicken coop) for as long as possible, or simply a lack of desire to make this transition resulting in going out of business.

In the European Union, these rearing conditions have been heavily regulated since 2012, in particular with the ban on individual laying hen cages for larger farms. Cage farming in general could be banned across the EU as early as 2027, after a citizens’ initiative accepted by the European Commission.

Source link