| To view the NJDA standards:
http://www.state.nj.us/agriculture/ruleprop.htm
To view UPC's comments:
http://www.upc-online.org/industry/CommentsEdit1.pdf
To view more comments:
http://www.njfarms.org/njhs_comments.htm
On June 27, UPC submitted a 50-page response to the NJDA's call
for public comments, due by July 4, on the department's proposed
"minimum standards" for the care and treatment of livestock
and poultry. UPC addressed the following areas of concern:
- Treatment of "day-old” chicks
- Force-molting of hens
- Housing of birds
- Debeaking and detoeing
- Catching birds for slaughter
While claiming to promote the "health and well-being"
of New Jersey's chickens and other farmed animals, the "humane"
standards exempt "routine" practices, such as starving
hens for 14 days to manipulate the economics of egg production-the
practice known as "forced molting." UPC cited this and
many other practices that need to be brought within the regulatory
framework of the proposed rules, such as forcing chickens to live
in dark "tunnel houses" where they do nothing but sit
in the dark, eat, and grow into "meat," and forcing
hens to live in cages for a year under artificial lights mimicking
the longest days of summer (16-17-hour days); then when the hens
can no longer produce eggs, either force-molting them and using
the survivors for another laying cycle, or suffocating them in
dumpsters.
Though the official comment period is past, you may
write to:
Dr. Nancy Halpern, Director
Division of Animal Health
PO Box 330
Trenton, NJ 08625-0330
Email: humane.standards@ag.state.nj.us
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