Animal Protection > Worldwide Actions > New Zealand

Campaigners Claim Victory For Hen Layer Hens
May 2006

All layer hens in New Zealand are likely to have a better way of life after a parliamentary committee recognised that the current Code of Welfare was a sham and ordered a rewrite.

Animal Rights Legal Advocacy Network (ARLAN) complained to the Regulations Review Committee that the code did not comply with the Animal Welfare Act. This Act recommends that animals should be able to display normal patterns of behaviour.

The committee agreed and recommended the code be sent back to National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC), who originally wrote the code.

Campaign Against Factory Farming (CAFF) spokesperson Debra Ashton says the decision by the multi-party committee is "a victory for common sense and sound science", and she hopes it will lead to a complete phase out of battery hen cages.
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full story: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0605/S00085.htm