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Cornish hen chicks at the Diemand Egg Farm in Wendell.
(THE REPUBLICAN FILE)
Animal rights activists have derided the practice of confining hens in small cages as "inhumane," "torture," and "extreme." More than 130,000 Massachusetts residents signed petitions supporting a ballot initiative to ban it.
At the center of the Massachusetts dispute? Around 3,000 chickens.
They belong to 64-year-old Peter Diemand and his family, on Diemand Farm in the small Franklin County town of Wendell (population 848, plus chickens).
Diemand understands the sentiments. But he wishes people would better understand his farm. "When people farm, they see life and death with animals. I think it puts a little different perspective on just how food is produced," Diemand said in a phone interview with The Republican / MassLive. "Because people are so far removed from the whole process, from the animals, agriculture, there's a disconnect that there wasn't always back many years ago when there were more people on farms."
The Humane Society of the United States, with a coalition of Massachusetts animal rights groups and others, is pushing for a 2016 ballot question that would ban the confinement in small cages of calves raised for veal, breeding pigs and egg-laying hens. The ballot initiative would also ban the sale of veal, pork and eggs from confined animals.
There is a separate effort afoot in the Legislature to create a new Livestock Care and Standards Board to examine issues like animal confinement.
While the ballot provision related to sales would have a wide-ranging impact, there are currently no Massachusetts farms using small cages for calves and pigs, and only one using cages for egg-laying chickens: Diemand Farm.
For Diemand, the decision not to go cage-free stems from his family's history on the farm, the nature of the animals and the cost.
Diemand's father started Diemand Farm in 1936 with free-range chickens. But that led to problems with predators and New England weather. So he moved the chickens indoors, also cage-free. But that brought other challenges.
Eggs would get dirty from lying in manure or having too many eggs laid in one spot. Flocks would get scared of lightening, thunder or headlights, and would crowd into corners, suffocating the hens at the bottom of the heap. At times, chickens were cannibalistic.
"They have a pecking order," Diemand said. "Sometimes they would peck each other, and if they drew blood on one of them, they would all gang up on it and kill it. It's just what chickens do."
In 1968, Diemand's father switched to using cages, and Diemand has carried on the practice ever since - although his birds raised for meat are cage-free.
With the recent brouhaha, Diemand has considered switching, but he estimates that making his egg operation cage-free would cost at least $100,000 for 3,000 birds.
Advocates for the ballot measure say confining animals in cages so small that they cannot move around is inhumane.
"Right now farm animals are kept in close confinement, crammed in cages so small they can't turn around," said Stephanie Harris, Massachusetts state director for the Humane Society of the United States and campaign director for the ballot initiative. "This ballot measure will go a long way to improving their welfare."
Abby Monkarsh, one of more than 1,000 volunteers who collected signatures to get the question on the ballot, speaks passionately of her love of animals. "I believe all animals deserve the right to live free. I find it hard to find a difference between dogs, cats, pigs, horses," Monkarsh said.
But opponents of the ballot initiative, often those tied to farming, say the referendum ignores the reality of farm life, and will drive up food prices.
Richard Bonanno, president of the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation, said most farms in Massachusetts - a state with more small family farms than large agricultural industry - have made a business decision to sell cage-free eggs, which can demand higher prices. Bonanno said because Massachusetts is an expensive place to farm due to land costs, regulations and high costs of diesel fuel, farmers cater to the small percentage of the public willing to pay more.
"Farmers can make more money selling to higher end markets," Bonanno said.
Bonanno said banning the import of other eggs will simply make eggs more expensive for everyone.
Diemand does not see his practice of caging chickens as inhumane. "I don't think chickens are the same as people," Diemand said.
Mostly, Diemand hopes people will learn how individual farms work before making up their own minds. "I'd like to see people get the truth of the matter before they make a decision," he said.