Despite recommendations made by the Animal Welfare Board of India in 2008 for keeping hens in open enclosures, egg-laying hens in all major hatcheries in the country are being kept in battery cages — considered both cruel and unhygienic.
The Supreme Court on Friday picked up the cause on behalf of the Board and directed the Centre to respond in a week stating reasons for putting the proposed changes in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Rules in cold storage for eight years. At the same time, it even pulled up the statutorily constituted body for raising the issue so late in the day, considering the fact that the Board exists since 1962.
Appearing for the Board, senior advocate KK Venugopal, himself a professed non-vegetarian, argued that the issue concerns public health as egg and chicken forms daily diet of millions of citizens. He pointed out that in battery cages, which are A-4 size cubicles, stack egg-laying hens one on top of the other in such a manner that these animals get infected with the bacteria from their droppings and lose feathers after rubbing wings against the iron cage.