Regulations enter into effect to ban starvation of hens to increase egg production
Denying hens food for eight to 12 days speeds up annual molting during which fewer eggs are laid and profits fall; animal welfare group: ‘Cruel practice’ crossed all lines
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
A years-long fight by animal welfare activists to stop the deliberate starvation of laying hens came to a successful end last week with the entry into force of new government regulations.
Starving hens, a practice already outlawed in the European Union, the UK, the US, Australia, and New Zealand, has been used to speed up the natural molting period during which birds lay fewer eggs than usual, causing a downturn in profit.
Starving hens for eight to 12 days and reducing daylight in the coops shortens the molting period from three months to one.
The new regulations provide for a six-month prison sentence for anyone caught breaking the law.
The not-for-profit organization Animals Now, which has been fighting the practice for well over a decade, said the “cruel practice” crossed all red lines and called for a speedy transition from crowded cages to cage-free coops, like those in advanced countries.
A government decision on banning cages has been deferred because of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Some 10 million hens lay eggs in Israel, and around 90 percent of them currently live in cramped cages of a design banned by 39 other countries, according to Animals Now.
