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Poultry, hog industries  brace for animal activism

Cage-free production would undercut food safety, producer says

Pete Dull talks with Dustin Simon, a visitor to his farm near Brookville, in a barn that houses sows inside of gestation crates. The Humane Society of the United States is trying to change the way pork and egg producers house animals on their farms. Staff photo by Jim Witmer

Jim Witmer Pete Dull talks with Dustin Simon, a visitor to his farm near Brookville, in a barn that houses sows inside of gestation crates. The Humane Society of the United States is trying to change the way pork and egg producers house animals on their farms. Staff photo by Jim Witmer

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Humane Society, farmers spar over livestock cages

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By Ben Sutherly, Staff Writer Updated 2:47 PM Sunday, May 3, 2009

Third-generation egg producer Tim Weaver has a 1950s-era egg carton labeled “Purina Cage Eggs.”

“They are always clean — the hens never touch the ground,” it proclaims.

Half a century later, the caged-hen production method, which Weaver said provides the highest degree of food safety and hen care, faces an unprecedented challenge in Ohio from the Humane Society of the United States.

HSUS wants to phase out not only battery cages for Ohio’s 27.3 million egg-laying hens, but also gestation crates for its pregnant pigs, and crates for veal calves in favor of group housing.

Farm animals should be able to stand up, sit down, turn around and extend their limbs at all times, said Paul Shapiro, senior director of HSUS’ factory farming campaign. He noted Smithfield Foods, the nation’s largest hog producer, committed in 2007 to phase out gestation crates.

If farm groups won’t work with HSUS to craft legislation, it likely will put a ballot initiative before Ohio voters next year.

California voters handily approved a similar ballot measure in 2008 that mandates freer movement for egg-laying hens, pregnant pigs and veal calves by 2015.

Ohio’s egg production, valued at $483 million in 2007, ranks second only to Iowa’s. Darke and Mercer counties, both within an hour’s drive of Dayton, ranked second and third in egg production among all U.S. counties in 2007.

But that could change if battery cages are phased out. Weaver, whose Versailles-based Weaver Bros. Inc. processes more than 2 billion eggs each year from 7.5 million chickens, said eliminating cages would threaten the survival of his business, which employs 300 people.

“I don’t have access to the capital it would take to get the number of hens it would take to stay in business,” Weaver said.

In recent years, he’s thinned his flocks in existing buildings by 25 percent to give hens more cage space in accordance with voluntary industry guidelines. He spent at least $12 million to add additional high-rise henhouses and equipment to replace that lost production, he said.

“It’s an emotional, misguided attempt by a special-interest group to impact the direction of agriculture in our country,” Weaver said. He’s concerned cage-free production would undercut animal welfare and food safety, and even threaten national security by forcing meat and egg production overseas.

Pete Dull, whose family produces more than 10,000 hogs each year at their farm near Brookville, also opposes group housing for pregnant pigs, saying his family abandoned the practice more than 30 years ago. The mother pigs, or sows, produce larger litters and have a longer useful life when kept in gestation crates, he said.

“The way we’re taking care of sows now is much better than (HSUS) wants,” Dull said.

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