Agra Women Cage Themselves in Solidarity with Hens Ahead of International Women’s Day

Just in time for International Women’s Day (8 March), women in Agra crammed themselves into cages in solidarity with hens on egg farms. These PETA India supporters reminded passers-by that mother hens raised for their eggs spend their entire lives in cages so small they can’t spread a single wing. 

In the egg industry, hens’ bodies are manipulated to produce as many as 300 eggs per year – far more than the 15 per year their wild ancestors would lay in nature. Because of this, they often suffer from osteoporosis, infections, ovarian cancer, and reproductive tumours, and eggs can even become lodged inside them. If treated well, a hen has a life expectancy of about 10 years. On an egg farm, her body is typically worn out after just two years – if she survives that long in the squalid, crowded conditions. When her egg production drops, she’s considered “spent” and is thrown into a truck full of other hens bound for a slaughterhouse or a live-animal market, where her throat is cut while she’s still conscious. 

In addition to sparing chickens and other animals immense suffering, each person who goes vegan saves nearly 200 animals a year from abuse and violent, painful death, reduces their risk of suffering from heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer, and helps prevent future pandemics. SARS, swine flu, bird flu, and likely COVID-19 all spread to humans from confining and killing animals for food. A United Nations report concluded that a global shift towards vegan eating is necessary to combat the worst effects of the climate catastrophe.