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The Welfare and Ethical Assessment of Housing for Egg Production

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The Welfare of Domestic Fowl and Other Captive Birds

Part of the book series: Animal Welfare ((AWNS,volume 9))

Abstract

Modern-day egg production is an ethical irony. Eggs have the potential to be one of the most ethically acceptable forms of food production in which humans could be involved, but instead, it is arguably the most human-biased of all food-animal industries. It is easy to imagine a scenario in which small groups of hens co-exist with humans in a symbiotic relationship that is almost devoid of negative ethical concerns. Hens will spontaneously produce eggs on a regular basis with little human intervention. These eggs could be gathered with minimal influence on the hens that laid them, and no loss of life because the eggs are unfertilised. The human caretakers could provide supplementary food and appropriate housing for the hens, and the hens in return could provide food for the humans in a way that involves no obvious welfare concern. But, this is an idyllic concept; it would be impossible to meet the present demand for eggs by producing them in this way.

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Acknowledgement

C.M. Sherwin was in receipt of the UFAW Hume Research Fellowship during the earliest preparation of this chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, Centre for Behavioural Biology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Chris M. Sherwin

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  1. Chris M. Sherwin
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Correspondence to Chris M. Sherwin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Animal & Poultry Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, N1G 2W1, Canada

    Ian J. H. Duncan

  2. Cruelty to Animals, Royal Society for the Prevention of, Wilberforce Way, Horsham, W.Sussex, RH13 9RS, United Kingdom

    Penny Hawkins

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Sherwin, C.M. (2010). The Welfare and Ethical Assessment of Housing for Egg Production. In: Duncan, I., Hawkins, P. (eds) The Welfare of Domestic Fowl and Other Captive Birds. Animal Welfare, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3650-6_10

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