Cambridge‚ Mass. condemns battery cages

Cambridge, Mass., has become the sixth U.S. city to formally condemn battery cages, according to the Boston Herald. The city’s resolution that passed unanimously August 30 encourages citizens not to buy eggs produced by caged hens.

The resolution, developed with help from the Humane Society of the United States, reads: “With no opportunity to engage in many of their natural behaviors—including nesting, dust bathing, perching, and walking—these birds endure lives wrought with suffering.”

The resolution was introduced at the request of Cambridge resident Ryan Shapiro, the brother of Paul Shapiro, director of the Humane Society’s factory farming campaign. Similar resolutions have been passed in Winter Springs and New Port Richey, Fla., Berkeley and West Hollywood, Calif., and Takoma Park, Md.

Paul Shapiro says in the article that “there’s an increasing interest now in procurement ordinances that would allow the city governments to lead by example and not buy eggs from caged hens.”