Action Animal Rescue Team saves 34 hens in three rescues, now
YOUR help is needed... please read on and help us if you can (thanks
so much!) RSPCA (Vic) CAUGHT IN CONSUMER
FRAUD
RSPCA approved 'Liberty' Barnlaid Eggs a Sham
Animal Liberation Victoria's ongoing investigation of PACE
FARMS over the past six weeks has saved 34 hens. The Action
Animal Rescue Team uncovered damning evidence of abandonment,
neglect and gross cruelty to animals. PACE FARMS (the
largest producer of eggs in Australia) exploits battery, barnlaid
and free range hens at their South Morang Enterprise, north of
Melbourne. The barn-laid division is endorsed by the RSPCA under
the 'LIBERTY BARN-LAID' label (RSPCA receives royalties for each
egg sold).
The rescue team raided the property on three separate occasions:
June 20, July 5 and July 18, 2001. The team filmed all three types
of production on the property and were able to save 34 hens who
were suffering illness and/or injury (19 from the barnlaid sheds,
9 from the battery cages, and 6 from the manure pit beneath them).
The "RSPCA-approved" hens were suffering severe
debeaking, much worse than the battery hens. The RSPCA's guidelines
stipulate "tipping of the hook of the upper mandible",
yet the majority of hens' upper beaks were removed to the nostrils
(see photo 1 below). Two hens were found near death in the RSPCA
shed and later had to be euthanased by a vet. One weak hen was
being cannibalised by the others. Another was catatonic and weighed
only 1.2kg, half her normal body weight (see photos 2 and 3).
On July 5th, the team returned to find the barn laid sheds cleared
out. Inside the cleared sheds, several hens were found cowering
on a pile of dead bodies, they had hardened faecal balls (some
the size of large oranges) on their claws. These birds were severely
dehydrated, underweight and weak (see photos 4 and 5). A semi-trailer
truck stacked high with crates of live birds was left standing
out exposed in the dark night. It was cold, windy and raining.
The birds made miserable sounds. As all production sheds were
being depopulated (emptied), the truck could have contained battery,
barn-laid and/or free-range hens.
The team returned yet again on July 18 and found dozens of debilitated
and ill battery hens abandoned and left to die in mountains of
their own excrement in the pit under their cages. The team were
able to rescue six of these birds. Employees of battery hen farms
report to the team that hens found in the manure pits are simply
bulldozed out with the manure and virtually buried alive.
RSPCA IN BED WITH EGG INDUSTRY The RSPCA is now in the business
of harming animals. Their financial connection with the largest
producer of battery eggs in Australia is a total sham and a conflict
of interest. The RSPCA should be prosecuting Pace Farms for cruelty,
not giving them a golden handshake taking royalties for eggs they
claim to be something they're not. (Note: PACE FARMS also gave
a 'sponsorship' of $35,000 to the RSPCA in the 1999/2000 financial
year) This is not the first time the rescue team has exposed the
shonky and misleading business practices of RSPCA-endorsed eggs.
The public is being misled, paying nearly twice the price for
so called "humane barn-laid eggs."
ANIMAL LIBERATION VICTORIA IS APPEALING TO ACTIVISTS AROUND THE
WORLD TO PUT PRESSURE ON THE RSPCA TO CLEAN UP IT'S ACT! Please
write/fax/email the National President Dr Hugh Wirth today.
Dr Hugh Wirth,
President RSPCA VIC
3 Burwood Highway
Burwood East
VIC 3151
Australia
FAX (03)9224 2200
EMAIL: rspca_vic@ibm.net
Tell Dr Wirth (who has been Victorian President of the RSPCA
for over 30 years) that as head of the country's most influential
animal welfare body he is failing in his duty to protect ALL animals,
most notably battery hens. Please put to Dr Wirth two options:
1) The RSPCA immediately sever all ties/financial business agreements
with PACE FARMS due to the conflict of interest and then prosecute
Pace Farms for cruelty to animals.
or:
2) Ask Dr Hugh Wirth to resign for failure to prevent cruelty
to animals.
(some selected background information...) RSPCA CONTINUALLY FAILS
BATTERY HENS * In Dr Wirth's 30 year reign at RSPCA (VIC) we are
aware of only one cruelty prosecution regarding battery cage systems
(this was after they gave evidence in court against the rescue
team when police charged team members with trespass. The RSPCA
then later prosecuted this farm.) * the latest edition of Poultry
News - the business magazine for the poultry industry quotes Shirley
Holmes (President of the RSPCA NSW) as saying that although caged
egg production wasn't her preferred egg production method she
realised that in the real world it was here to stay. * The RSPCA
in South Australia just last week withdrew charges against a battery
egg producer in that state claiming, inter-alia, the costs of
the case were too high. This case had been touted as an historical
breakthrough... This scenario is similiar in most Australian states.
* RSPCA VIC were embarrassed when footage taken by the rescue
team was featured on national TV in 1999 exposing their barn-laid
hens crammed like maggots on metal flooring. The birds were being
deliberately restricted to a small area of the shed to 'train
them to lay in nest boxes'.
(photos taken by Patty Mark, Romeo Gadze and Noah Mark)
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