Battery eggs are produced by hens who live in cramped, caged conditions with a space allowance each of 75% of an A4 sheet of paper. Their beaks are always seared off and they do not have access to sunlight or the ability to exercise any of their basic behavioural needs such as laying an egg in a nest, dust-bathing, sun-bathing, foraging and scratching for food.   After a year, the rate at which they lay eggs drops from one egg every 25 hours to one every 34 hours. They are no longer considered “economically viable” and are sent to cull farms where hawkers buy them for slaughter in informal settlements. Please join me in this petition which aims at ending the cruel and unnecessary practice of battery farming in South Africa.

To ALL supermarkets – asking them to STOP battery eggs.

And once again, a seemingly ethical company like Woolworths needs to be coerced into going all the way:
For Woolworths customers – to Woolworths Top Management – asking them to live up to their signs, and stop using battery eggs in their food.

“….Slick advertising campaigns that promote a caring image obscure a reality of suffering and exploitation.” - Sounds familiar….

“ARA is determined to work with other animal protection groups to persuade the companion animal food industry to clean up its act. ARA supports and promotes the BUAV’s new No Animal Testing Pet Food Standard. For companies to qualify, they have to prove that neither they nor their suppliers are engaged in animal testing that harms animals: that means no invasive laboratory experiments or keeping animals in captive laboratory or kennel conditions for lengthy periods of time – conditions that cannot fulfil their physical and psychological needs.

Many animal food companies issue unreliable and incomplete statements regarding their testing practices and the conduct of their suppliers”

They name these as no-go brands:

• IAMS / Eukanuba owned by Procter & Gamble
• Hills Science Diet owned by Colgate Palmolive The majority of pet food brands available in the UK are produced by two animal testing companies – “Nestlé Purina/Friskies” and “Pedigree, Masterfoods (Mars Inc).”
• Nestlé Purina/Friskies: Alpo, Bonio, Felix, Go Cat, Gourmet, Omega Complete, Proplan, Spillers, Vital Balance, Winalot.
• Pedigree, Masterfoods (Mars Inc): Bounce, Cesar, Chappie, Frolic, James Wellbeloved, Katkins, Kitekat, Pal, Pedigree Chum, Royal Canin, Sheba, Techni-cal (US & Canada), Whiskas. Pedigree also manufacture Thomas rabbit food and Trill bird food.

and provide this list of suitable alternatives (note SA telephone numbers) :

And then because it’s Friday and you made it this far down the article

For the girls:

And the guys:

But Dr Sebastien Farnaud, of the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research, described the figures as ‘shocking’.

He added: ‘It has repeatedly been shown how irrelevant to human patients animal disease models can be, so sustaining such high animal use is not in the best interests of science.”

Full article here

Brings to mind this quote of Gandhi: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”.

I know. There are many people who are adamant supporters of these experiments and they will probably have some solid arguments to support their views. My questions is this: Why do we humans insist on producing and using products that are inherently so unnatural, dangerous and toxic that we need to constantly test it on innocent animals to make sure we survive using these products? And don’t tell me about “progress” – cancer rates are soaring as a result of all these “enhancements” we’re making to our food, cosmetics and symptom-treatments ( a.k.a. medicine, if you use the term loosely)

I maintain that prisoners convicted of serious crimes should be used in these experiments. I mean make it relevant, like the man said. The lifers / death-row people could finally prove useful for something in the toxicology tests and you can’t argue – the prospect of becoming a test subject for the next 15-25 years as opposed to getting free room & board should be fairly serious deterrent, especially if the details of the experiments are widely published. 

You can thank me for ruining your tea / lunch / smoke break later, first go have a look at PETA’s website to see what you can do to help stop this.