Introducing a petition to ban inhumane cage confinement in the egg industry
Today in the legislature I introduced Ned Taylor (photographed to the right with my colleague Vicki Huntington) who started a petition to ban battery cages in British Columbia. Ned Taylor was joined by his father Matt Taylor and by a friend Jordan Reichhart. I subsequently tabled his petition in the legislature.
As I mentioned in my introduction, there is only one step of separation in Victoria! Ned’s sister and my daughter went to elementary school together and his father’s sister and I both graduated from Oak Bay Secondary School in 1979!
Below I reproduce the text and video of both the guest and petition introductions.
Video of Guest Introduction
Text of Guest Introduction
A. Weaver: It gives me great pleasure to introduce three guests today, two of whom are constituents. The first is Ned Taylor — he’s a Reynold’s Secondary School student and the author of a petition I’ll be introducing momentarily — along with father, Matt Taylor, and his friend Jordan Reichhart.
I might say for those of you who are from Victoria, you will know there is no such thing of two steps of separation from people. There is only one. It turns out Ned’s sister was in grade one and kindergarten with my daughter and that his father’s sister went to high school with me and graduated in 1979 from Oak Bay.
Would the House please make them feel very welcome.
Video of Petition Introduction
Text of Petition Introduction
A. Weaver: I’m very pleased to stand to present a petition against the use of inhumane cage confinement in the egg industry. This petition, which has over 33,000 signatures, was started and organized by Ned Taylor, a constituent who’s attending grade 12 at Reynolds Secondary School in Victoria. In Ned Taylor’s words, this petition stands firmly against battery cages, enriched cages and all other cages in the egg industry because chickens deserve to roam freely for their health and well-being. Battery cages are cages used in our egg industry that confine egg-laying hens for their entire lives. In these cages the hens have no space to move or spread their wings, nor do they have a place to perch.
8 Comments
Animals deserve humane treatment.
I see no link to the petition
Hi Jenny,
Thanks so much for your interest! There is a link to the petition in the article and you can also find it here: https://www.change.org/p/ban-battery-cages-in-british-columbia
The reason that chickens will “peck each other to death” as they say, is due to their mental status when caged as they are. They have literally lost their minds. They live and die in a life of confined torture. Domestic chickens who are allowed to roam free do not “usually” exhibit such behaviour.
I would love to see this banned. However, you would also have to pass a law about how much would be the minimum room required for x amount of chickens. This is because if they don’t have enough space and aren’t separated, they will peck each other to death (literally).
they should be free to roam
Let them run
Animals deserve respect. They do so much for us – work to keep us safe (police force, security /guard, search for drugs, mines, etc), provide us with food either meat/dairy/eggs, comfort us as companion animals or family members, provide us with warmth, clothe us, provide leather for many things that we produce. assist people living with disabilities and/ or medical issues, mental, physical and emotional health-make us go out for walks and fresh air, and love is unconditionally. What do we do for them? This is just a request for treating another living being with decency and respect.