|
Your mission: Put the chicken before the egg! Get the word out about cruel cages for hens and see if you can help your community go cage-free. 
Why? Most eggs produced in the U.S. don’t come from Old MacDonald’s Farm. Instead, they come from industrialized factory farms confining millions of laying hens in overcrowded battery cages. Stacked one on top of another, each small wire cage may hold as many as 10 hens. Each hen has less space than the size of a sheet of paper. Hens confined in battery cages can’t spread their wings, make nests, perch, dustbathe, or do other things they were born to do. Get more details at NoBatteryEggs.com.
How? Write letters and talk to your parents, friends, restaurant managers, and school cafeteria manager. Ask them to make the switch to cage-free eggs.
1. Do your homework. Read our study guide and download our Hens Need a Hand factsheet to get the facts.
2. Family first. Take a look at the egg carton in your fridge. Does it say “cage-free,” “free-range,” “organic," or “free-roaming” on the label? If not, the eggs probably came from chickens confined in battery cages. Ask your parents that if they keep buying eggs, why not choose only eggs that come from cage-free chickens?
You can have a talk with your parents about it or even write them a letter. Think about making these points:
-
Describe what life is like for hens kept in cages.
-
Explain why you would like your family to not buy eggs from caged hens.
-
Ask your parents to look for the “cage-free” labels. They can find out more at EggLabels.com.
-
Thank your parents for what they have done to teach you kindness to animals.
3. Dining out? Ask restaurants to make the switch to cage-free eggs. Speak with the manager and explain the problems with eggs from battery-caged hens. Print out a few copies of the cage-free restaurant card. Keep them handy so you can give one to the manager or leave one along with your tip every time you dine out.
4. Cage-free cafeteria. While you may not see scrambled eggs on your lunch menu, cafeterias use a lot of eggs in cooking. Set up a meeting with your school’s principal or cafeteria manager to ask about the eggs used at school. Explain why you would like the school to switch to cage-free eggs. If you’re not in an animal club at school, see if any friends or classmates want to help. Ask them to go to the meeting with you.
Contact us at teens@humanesociety.org or 860-434-8666, ext. 13. We’ll work with you every step of the way in your efforts to get your school to go cage-free.
 5. Pass it on. Whatever your family, school, or restaurant does, you can still help hens by teaching others. Write letters to your local newspapers about life for hens in cages (get tips in our Mission: Humane Action Guide). Ask readers to choose cage-free if they buy eggs. Place flyers in your school, library, community center, and other public areas. Request extra copies of Hens Need a Hand by e-mailing us. Tell your community that people care about egg-laying hens.
6. Tell us about it. We want to know about your work to help egg-laying hens. Fill out our
Mission: Accomplished form and send us copies of your flyer and the letters you have written.
Your reward: A Humane Society Youth messenger bag!
|
