Egg Factories ‘Appalling’

The Jan. 25 story, “Egg Ranchers in Southland Are Scrambling to Survive,” discussed the difficulties facing egg producers but omitted one that is at present small but will undoubtedly grow as the public becomes more aware of it.

There are appalling and sustained cruelties in “egg factories.” Birds are crowded into cages so small that when one dies it often has no space to fall. This overcrowding causes such tensions and frustrations that the birds have to be de-beaked to prevent them from pecking and injuring each other, although apparently these same tensions cause them to lay more eggs.

There is a small but growing movement demanding an end to such atrocities. If the industry does not reform itself, the movement will gain momentum and force such heartless factories to listen to these demands.

FELIX LAYTON

Ojai