The search for a happy egg

Will Victoria find an egg that's truly cruelty-free?

When I read Glenn Gaetz's guest blog post, Understanding ‘Cruelty-Free’ Eggs, my heart sank. As I read paragraph to paragraph, I kept thinking, "He's going to tell us what to do at the end, right? There's a happy egg out there, right!?" But Glenn offered no such hope—and I just couldn't accept the thought that there were no happy eggs to be had, that I'd have to go egg-less. It was too tough to swallow, and so I decided I would embark on a mission…

The Quest for the Happy Egg

Before the quest:

Before I started my quest, I was eating organic eggs. I thought that they were the best of the bunch, guaranteeing both free run and certified organic feed to the chickens. But, they weren’t entirely cruelty-free.

I've always tried to shop locally and organically wherever possible, and I don't mind making a longer trip in order to do so, so I was willing to do a little homework to find a better egg.

The initial findings:

I started out by doing some online research and found information that only confirmed what Glenn had written. The BC-SPCA's comparison chart (PDF) illustrates the differences between poultry and livestock that is “Conventional,” “SPCA Certified” and “Certified Organic (COABC).”

According to the chart the latter two are against de-beaking and allow for the most humane quality of life possible—including at the time of slaughter. However, these standards do not address the issue of the male chicks that are killed because they aren't egg producers, nor do they address what happens to laying hens after their two years of maximum egg productivity are up.

I checked out the Humane Society of the United State's Brief Guide to Egg Carton Labels and was horrified to discover that USDA-certified “Organic” egg producers allow forced molting—a.k.a. starving the birds—and beak cutting. It seemed that for the US the only label that prohibited these acts was “Animal Welfare Approved.” Not much use to me, however, here in Canada.

But with so many farms here in BC, I figured it was time to hit the road.