Hope for Egg Laying Hens

The Humane Society of the United States and the United Egg Producers announced an unprecedented agreement to work together toward the enactment of a new federal law that will directly better the lives of 280 million hens involved in egg production in the United States.

The proposed standards would define the first federal law addressing the treatment of animals on farms. This fact alone is very significant. There are laws that deal with the slaughter and transportation of animals, but this would be the first law about how they live on farms. We can only hope that setting this type of standard will make other areas of the agriculture industry follow. 


According to the HSUS, if congress were to pass the proposed law it would:

• Ban current battery cages, require all hens be given enough room to stand and spread their wings, and provide perches, scratching areas and nesting boxes
• Require labeling on all egg cartons to tell consumers the method used to produce the eggs, such as “eggs from caged hens” and “eggs from free-range hens”
• Prohibit feed or water-withholding molting, which basically means starving hens for 2 weeks so that they start to lay eggs
• Prohibit excessive ammonia levels in henhouses
• Ban the sale of eggs and egg products nationwide that don’t meet these requirements

To have animal protection groups and the agriculture industry come to an agreement about something like the living conditions of farm animals is virtually unheard of. If you are interested in learning more, you can read what The Farm Sanctuary has to say about the proposed law.