The RSPCA is encouraging other States to follow the lead of the nation’s capital after the Animal Welfare (Factory Farming) Amendment Bill was debated in the ACT Legislative Assembly today.
The bill will make battery cages, sow stalls and farrowing crates illegal in the ACT if it is passed into law.
This follows changes made in Tasmania last year which prohibit any new cage facilities being built and will see the use of sow stalls phased out over the next three years.
Battery cages provide less space per layer hen than an A4 sheet of paper and birds are unable to stretch their wings, perch or lay their eggs in a nest. For sows (female pigs) being confined to narrow stalls and crates so small they cannot even turn around means they, too, suffer intensely and continuously throughout their confinement.
This is a symbolic step for improving the welfare of Australian farm animals.
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