Better an egg today ... but hen free

by Eleonora Anello

The eggs are not all the same. This is the clear message of the new environmental communication campaign launched by LAV (Italian Lega Anti Vivisection) through a small but exhaustive site gallinelibere.lav.it. Here you can find all the useful information to distinguish the eggs from free hens, that is from birds that live on land.
It is estimated that in Italy 80% of hens are kept in cages and that means that as many as 40 million laying hens live segregated in not enough space even to open their wings.

Galline Libere (Free Hens), the new critical consumption campaign, fruitfully ties to Easter, that made of the eggs a heard theme as well as an essential purchase. The initiative also consists of information tables presents in 350 squares in Italy on Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 March. In the stands, as well as on the web, you can withdraw the new guidance on the labelling system for eggs, sign the petition addressed to local governments, in order to ensure the vegetarian options in canteen, and buy the traditional Trade Fair chocolate egg. It will also possible to sign the postcards-appeal that will be sent to administrators and local supermarkets to urge them to prefer the eggs of free hens.

Even if under the EU Directive 74 of 1999 -which could not be implemented due to the strong discontent of the companies- from 1st January, 2012, the battery hens are no longer legal, according to animal welfare associations it is important that the producers convert their farms to more respectful methods for the wellbeing of their animals.

The information campaign will expose the marketing operations of companies that try to deceive the consumer through bucolic images of hens scratching in the courtyards. Furthermore, it attempts to shed light on the too bureaucratic label, often confusing and difficult to read because hidden or too small. Remember that the packages that bear the code 0 come from organic farms, the code 1 from outside breeding, the 2 to the ground, while those with code 3 from caged hens.