Battery Hen

Auckland Animal Action anonymously recieved the following communique...

Early on Sunday morning, the 19th of November, animal rights activists broke into a battery hen farm in West Auckland removing 35 chickens. Activists gained entry into Eggs R Us on Henderson Valley Road, by cutting a large hole in one side of a shed. The shed contained row after row of caged hens.

Auckland Animal Action has received the following anonymous message:

On the night of Sunday the 2nd of July 2006, we rescued 10 battery hens from a South Auckland egg farm. This farm has always been locked up tight but on this particular night one of the doors happened to open for us ;-)

We swiftly gained entry and removed any hens which we found that looked in particularly bad condition. The farm was huge; five tiered rows held thousands of hens. We could only see the faces of the hens in the top tiers peeking down to look at us.

The following message was received anonymously by Auckland Animal Action:

Shortly after rescuing six Tegel chicks, Santa and his little helpers have liberated 30 battery hens from a life of living hell.

Auckland Animal Action has rescued 500 battery hens from an intensive egg farm based in South Auckland. The farm owner had advertised 5000 of his 18 month old ‘end of lay’ hens for sale for fifty cents each on the website www.trademe.co.nz. The hens were due to be culled as they had reached the peak of their egg laying production. New Zealand’s 2.8 million battery hens lay an average of around 320 eggs per year each, as opposed to the 20 eggs per year that their wild ancestors would lay. Chickens have a normal lifespan of 15 to 20 years.

Auckland Animal Action received the following communique from anonymous animal rights activists who recently rescued 20 battery hens from appalling conditions:

"Egg Affair is a battery hen farm situated at 62 Barrett Road, Albany, Auckland. We have visited this farm on several occasions, rescuing hens from disturbing conditions and documenting what we have found.