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May 31st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda The Australian Egg Corporation (AEC) says most consumers support its move to limit the number of hens that can be kept in an area to qualify as free range, but the RSPCA says the move is a ploy to hide the plight of caged hens.
AEC, the egg industry’s main marketing body, has recommended a free-range stocking density of up to 20,000 hens per hectare, or two hens per square metre.
There is currently no cap on stocking densities, AECL says.
More than 80 per cent of free-range egg shoppers around Australia that had been shown videos of hens stocked at the recommended density said they were satisfied with it, AECL said on Thursday.
“Unless consumers are shown what two-hens-per-hectare density is like in real life, they cannot contextualise it, but when they do, they are satisfied that it is an appropriate maximum-density ratio,” AEC managing director James Kellaway said in a statement.
Mr Kellaway rejected RSPCA Australia’s assertion that the research was only drawing the public’s attention away from the egg industry’s less humane practices.
“By focusing on free-range egg production, AEC is cunningly diverting the consumer’s attention away from the plight of hens in barren battery cages,” RSPCA Australia scientific officer for farm animals Melina Tensen said.
Mr Kellaway rebuffed Ms Tensen’s claim that there were more than 11.1 million hens in Australia living in cages allowing them less space than the size of an A4 piece of paper, representing a stocking density of 182,000 hens per hectare or 18.2 hens per square metre.
He said the suggestion was deceptive, but he could not confirm whether the 182,000 figure was correct.
“I can’t attest to whether it’s correct or not,” Mr Kellaway told AAP.
“But they (RSPCA) are getting away from the real issue here, which is free range.
“Most new cages … can be up to three to four metres in length and about a metre in depth.
“Now there are a number of birds in that cage, granted, but there is no cage in terms of a cage that is compliant – which represents the majority of the industry – that is the size of an A4 piece of paper.”
He said the qualitative research was conducted independently by Brand Story, quizzing a total of 121 people within 14 focus groups across Australia.
Separately, consumer group CHOICE said it put the free-range expectations of 900 consumers to the test and found next to no support for a limit of 20,000 hens per hectare.
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