Victory: Radio Foods Becomes First National Egg Producer to Phase Out Battery Cages

Having grown up for part of my childhood on a farm that raised chickens, I can attest to the fact that every single chicken has an individual personality. Our chickens were raised in a chicken house with a large pen to run around in. The cruelty part came in at their death. Traumatized me for life. Made me very angry at grandparents and the cruel world. Molded my whole future. That's why I think it is about time we recognize the beingness of the creatures you enjoy eating. Just help make their short existence pleasant for them as well. I think you are born with or without animal empathy.
By Drew Wilson of Care2Causes

Less than a week after Mercy for Animals exposed extreme cruelty at the largest egg farm in New England, Radlo Foods announced that they are making a commitment to ending the confinement of hens in battery cages at their facilities. With this move, Radlo has now become the first national egg producer to commit to not using battery cages at all. This will mean a tremendous improvement in the lives of the millions of hens who are currently confined in tiny, barren cages owned by Radlo.
According to CEO David Radlo, "We’re proud to officially pledge to stop using cage confinement systems and implement a plan to become an exclusively cage-free company within ten years."
Cage-free hens generally have two to three times more space per bird than caged hens. Cage-free hens may not be able to go outside and still may have parts of their beaks cut off, but they can walk, spread their wings, and lay their eggs in nests—all behaviors permanently denied to hens crammed into battery cages.
Radlo is taking steps to improve the lives of the animals they raise for food, but let's not forget the scale of the cruelty these animals face. Phasing out battery cages does not mean that hens live happy lives free of suffering. Cage-free egg factory-farms are still overcrowded with birds, they're filthy and they provide hens with constant stress.
This victory underlines the severity of the problem of systematic animal abuse in food production. In the United States, factory farms confine about 280 million hens in battery cages. Radlo foods is now the only national egg producer that has committed to not using these types of cages. There are hundreds more egg producers--large and small--that are still using battery cages. Even with this huge victory under our belt, it is still true that the vast majority of eggs produced in this country come from places like Quality Eggs of New England, where an undercover investigator found hens languishing without water, birds with broken bones and some with a prolapsed ururus. What's the single-best thing you can do to help hens who are confined in cages? Go vegan.