In the community section of this website is dedicated to informing Pickering residents of the issues Councillor O’Connell supports and the legislation she is working to have implemented. Issues and legislation appear as threads (often accompanied with downloads and related links) organized from the most recent date of issue to least recent date of issue.
 

Let the hens roam: Pickering
October 21, 2008

PICKERING -- Council Monday supported the Humane Society International (Canada's) attempt to reduce the cruel conditions that 26 million egg-laying hens currently endure in Canada.

In a letter to the City requesting its support, the director of outreach for the Humane Society, Bruce Passmore, said hens confined in battery cages spend their entire reproductive lives, about 18 months, crowded into one cage with four-to-six other birds. This compromises their natural behaviours such as dust-bathing, wing-flapping, nesting, perching, walking and simply standing on solid ground.

"Each hen is given less space than a single sheet of letter-sized paper," he said.

The motion basically encourages: restaurants to highlight the availability of free-range eggs (where hens roam freely on the farm) on their menus; consumers to request the option of purchasing them at restaurants and grocery stores; wholesalers and retailers to highlight a preference for them; and, caterers of City-run facilities to be requested to use free-range eggs. A letter will also be sent to the provincial and federal governments, the Food Inspection Agency and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario requesting that all members adopt a similar initiative.

Ward 1 City Councillor Jennifer O'Connell said it would be "appalling" not to support the request when other councillors suggested receiving it for information. But after some tweaking to the wording to ensure the motion simply encourages the idea, and won't force it, Council approved it unanimously.

Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Switzerland have already banned the use of battery cages, and the entire European Union will follow suit in 2012. Burger King, Denny's and Whole Foods Market have made similar moves.