September 27, 2001

To Whom It May Concern:

A 1988 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, I currently work as an emergency veterinarian in Hyattstown, Maryland.

I have viewed a videotape provided by Mercy For Animals that clearly shows hens kept in extremely cruel conditions at two battery-cage egg facility.

Each cage at the facility appears to contain at least eight hens. The hens are severely overcrowded––so crowded that the wire floors of their cages are barely visible and the hens cannot move to another part of the cage without climbing over one another. The wire of the cages is caked with feces and feathers.

Probably due to abrasion against the wire of their cages, most of the hens have suffered severe feather damage. Most are missing wing and tail feathers. Many have patches of bare skin, where their body feathers have been worn away. Several are suffering from eye injuries, including swollen or missing eyes. Some may have abscesses destroying their eye.

These hens have been debeaked – standard industry practice in which a portion of fully awake chick’s beak is severed using a hot blade. The beak has rich nerve supply and this procedure is extremely painful. Debeaking prevents pecking of other chickens brought on by grossly overcrowded conditions. Many of the hens show signs of poorly performed debeakings; often the top half of the beak has been cut extremely short and the nostrils may be affected. Some of the hens may have difficulty eating with such grossly abnormal beaks.

The videotape shows several hens with their head, neck, and/or wings caught in the wire of their cages. One bird lies with her head caught under the cage barely alive. In such conditions, the birds cannot reach food or water and would die a slow death from starvation and dehydration.

Several dead hens are seen, often with their heads stuck in the cage. From the condition of their bodies, they have been dead for several days or longer and, obviously, no attempt have been made to remove them from their cages. These corpses could pose a disease threat to other chickens.

The conditions revealed by the videotape impose extreme physical and psychological deprivation. Prevented from engaging in normal chicken activities such as dustbathing, foraging, and sunbathing, as well as being subjected to the effects of severe crowding and an atmosphere filled with dust and toxic ammonia fumes, the hens appear listless and dazed; many barely react even when a camera's bright light shines on them.

In sum, the Mercy For Animals videotape that I have viewed shows hens subjected to extremely inhumane conditions that inflict severe deprivation and injury. I have no doubt that these hens suffer terribly under such conditions. Keeping hens in battery cages is unquestionably cruel.

Sincerely,

Eric Dunayer, VMD