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Battery Hen Farming in New Zealand – A Critical Evaluation.

SAFE Date of publication: 01/01/2007

Summary:

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Animals & Us – Issue One.

More than any other issue, battery hen farming has captured the curiosity and concern of the general public, and has received extensive coverage in the media and within the public domain.The issue of battery hens has therefore become highly significant both nationally and internationally, and so provides an opportunity to explore the complex and diverse attitudes and behaviours demonstrated by our society towards animals. By focusing on this issue we are able not only to observe, but also to participate in current ethical, social, scientific, political and economic discussions within a national and global framework.

The battery hen issue raises a number of complex questions shared by other social justice movements, including:

• What are our moral and ethical obligations towards others?

• Do and should economic considerations ever take priority over moral and ethical obligations?

• How have certain practices evolved historically and in what ways are they a product of the society they evolved in?

• How do New Zealand attitudes, laws and practices compare with those of other societies?

• How do our treatment of and ideas about animals define our society and nation?