International House of Pain for Egg-Laying Hens

The Humane Society of the United States has a long track record of successful work with food companies on developing forward-thinking animal welfare policies -- advancements that result in meaningful improvements for animals such as ending the use of extreme confinement systems like battery cages and gestation crates.

Animal welfare should be part of the Corporate Social Responsibility portfolio for any major corporation, and increasingly, companies are heeding the call.

Sometimes, our attempts at positive dialogue with a company break down and our last resort is a public campaign. While we always prefer to work cooperatively with businesses, on occasion even years of dialogue can yield no benefit for animals and it becomes necessary to publicly call on a company to do the right thing.

That's why today we're launching a national campaign urging IHOP to start switching some of its eggs away from battery cage confinement to cage-free -- a modest step that many of the company's competitors have already taken. Despite more than two years of private discussions, IHOP refuses to change the fact that all of the eggs it uses come from hens confined in cages so small they can't even spread their wings.

To make this matter even more urgent, yesterday IHOP's primary egg supplier, Michael Foods, was the subject of a gut-wrenching undercover exposé documenting egregious animal cruelty and severe food safety concerns. The animal protection organization that conducted the investigation, Compassion Over Killing, videotaped hens forced to live in cages with the decomposing corpses of their cage-mates, sick and injured hens, live and dead hens stuck in their cage's wires, and disturbingly filthy conditions.

The cruelties that the investigation exposes are tragically nothing new at Michael Foods. A 2006 HSUS investigation of another Michael Foods factory farm documented similar cruelty, including live hens confined in cages with corpses, hens trapped in cage wires, sick and injured hens, and more.

Battery cages are so inhumane they've even been banned in IHOP's home state of California (phase-out date of 2015), thanks to Proposition 2's landslide passage last November.

Please contact IHOP today and ask the company to take a modest, commonsense step in the right direction by simply starting to move away from battery cage eggs.

Comments

[Sarahhsus]

@JeanRR You may be interested in Wayne's recent blog posting, which includes beautiful photos from our animal care centers. As a leading animal welfare organization, the HSUS does what many shelters cannot do, which includes lobbying for stronger legislation to prevent cruelty. While not affiliated with a local shelter, the HSUS does have wildlife centers in Massachusetts, California and Florida, in addition our Duchess Sanctuary in Oregon for horses, and the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch, which cares for more than 1,000 animals, in east Texas. What it comes to though, is neither animal rights or animal welfare, but rather about human responsibility, and the personal choices we are making.

[Danielle Kichler]

How about asking them to use fewer eggs?

And JeanRR, you say animal rights like there's something wrong with that.

[JeanRR]

Let's get one thing straight. H$U$ is NOT an animal welfare organization, it is an animal rights organization. Animal rights fanatics campaign to give animals rights equal to, no greater than, humans. One famous AR quote is Ingrid Newkirk's "A rat is a pig is a boy." As humans, we are obligated to protect animals from abuse and misuse. But we are foolish if we put animals on a pedestal as the animal rights fanatics do. BTW, H$US does very little to directly help animals in need. They spend their large coffers on self-promotion instead. In turn they divert money from the hard working local shelters that do so much to hlep animals.

[larry278]

Thanks for another reason to avoid IHOP. Their food is lousy & their stores are uniformly raunchy. I'll stick with Greek diners. I don't know where my favorite diners buy their eggs but if you want eggs benedict 24/7-the Greek diner is the place.

[ResidualSelfImage]

Legislation should crafted for space and diet of egg-layers.
Feeding chickens corn and soy is a poor diet.
Feed the chickens hemp seeds which contain pure protein and healthy EFAS.
The chickens grow twice as fast and lay more healthier eggs.