Nobody Here But Us Chickens

Nobody Here But Us Chickens

Passing resolutions to protect animals over abuses of humans shows the
curious priorities of the Cambridge City Council. (Donna Goodison, "Cambridge
squawks over cages," Boston Herald, August 1, 2007) There are criminal penalties
to protect animals used for research at the state and US levels. But there are
no penalties for violations of laws using human subjects in medical experiments.
Cambridge has a Laboratory Animal Commissioner but no person whose mission is to
protect humans used in research.
Why are there no standards to protect egg-laying hens from sexual abuses of
roosters? Are full rights under Roe vs. Wade extended to egg-laying hens? What
laws prohibit sexual harassment by roosters? The Cambridge resolution has no
teeth and needs penalties to make it real. This is one more example of pandering
to the voters.

--
Roy Bercaw, Editor
ENOUGH ROOM

Cambridge squawks over cages
By Donna Goodison
Boston Herald
Wednesday, August 1, 2007 - Updated: 09:57 AM EST

Cambridge became the sixth U.S. city to formally condemn factory farms’
confinement of egg-laying hens to small wire “battery” cages.
The Cambridge City Council on Monday unanimously passed a resolution
opposing the “inherent cruelty” of the cages and encouraging consumers not to
purchase eggs produced by caged hens.
“With no opportunity to engage in many of their natural behaviors -
including nesting, dust bathing, perching and walking - these birds endure lives
wrought with suffering,” the resolution, worded with help from the Humane
Society of the United States, states. The resolution was introduced by Councilor
Craig Kelley at the request of Cambridge resident Ryan Shapiro, a Ph.D. student
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [...]