Agriculture minister vows to phase out caged chicken coops

Agriculture Minister Oded Forer pledges on Army Radio that no new chicken coops with cages will be built in the country.

New cage-free coops, although still crowded, have been urged by animal rights groups as they allow hens to indulge in some natural activities such as standing on and pecking in the ground and spreading their wings.

Forer announces that a reform of the egg industry will be taken out of the Economic Arrangements Bill that accompanies the State Budget and formulated separately.

But some issues need to be dealt with immediately, such as animal welfare, he adds.

“I met with many animal organizations, with Animals Now and others, and I promised them, and we’re also going to implement it, that no new cage coops will be built in Israel.”

Regulations to this effect are to be advanced “immediately,” he says.