For most of us, the ability to move about unrestricted is something we take for granted.  However, the caged hens who produce eggs for Costco will never get to experience this freedom.  Instead, they are forced to live in an endless nightmare of containment. 

On May 28, I submitted an email to the CEO of Costco, Craig Jelinek, asking him to consider eliminating battery cages for hens throughout Costco's supply chain.  In his response to my email, Mr. Jelinek made it clear that he is not committed to keeping the pledge Costco made 8 years ago to transition to a completely cage-free egg supply.  He even went so far as to state "some advocate that cages are safer for hens". 

As you can see in the video above (HSUS, 2015), which highlights conditions at one of Costco's suppliers, Hillandale farms, battery cages are not safe.  According to the Humane Society, hens in battery cages are forced to live their entire lives within the space of a single sheet of letter paper.  Because they live in cramped conditions they cannot engage in their natural behaviors like nesting, dusting, and perching (HSUS, n.d.).  As Nobel Prize winner Konrad Lorenz expresses, "The worst torture to which a battery hen is exposed is the inability to retire somewhere for the laying act...it is truly heart-rending to watch how a chicken tries again and again to crawl beneath her fellow cagemates to search there in vain for cover" (HSUS, n.d.).

Mr. Jelinek stated in his email that Costco sells over "fifty million dozen cage free eggs a year".  Join me in petitioning Mr. Jelinek to let him know that this is not enough. Costco should completely eliminate battery cages for all hens.  Costco has positioned itself as a leader in human rights by providing excellent conditions for their employees. May Costco also become a leader in promoting humane standards for animals.

References:

The Humane Society of the United States. (2015, June 9). Costco Doesn't Want You to Know What's Wrong With These Egg [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeabWClSZfI

The Humane Society of the United States. (n.d.). Cage-free vs. battery-cage eggs: Comparison of animal welfare in both methods. Retrieved from http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/confinement_farm/facts/cage-free_vs_battery-cage.html

Original Email (in its entirety) from CEO Craig Jelinek on June 10, 2015:

Thank you for e-mail:

Costco Wholesale is committed to the ethical treatment of animals.  Our mission statement to this effect is contained on our web site.  We enforce this through testing and inspection of facilities, done by persons who are independent of the suppliers.

There are vigorous debates about animal welfare and laying hens.  Some, such as the Humane Society, advocate that hens be “cage free,” and not confined in cages.  Some advocate that cages are safer for hens.  Some jurisdictions, such as California, have laws mandating that eggs derive from hens confined in cages of a certain size.     

We respect that many people prefer to buy and consume cage free eggs.  Our Kirkland Signature Organic Eggs derive from cage free hens, and along with other cage free items we sell over fifty million dozen cage free eggs a year.​  Over the last nine years, the number of organic/cage free eggs we sell has increased more than twenty fold.

​One of our suppliers, Hillandale Farms, was featured in a video recently released by the Humane Society.  Hillandale has released a statement with its perspective on the incident, available at http://hillandalefarms.com/​.  Inspections that we have conducted there as recently as this week confirmed for us that Hillandale is behaving appropriately.  ​Hillandale has identified some areas in which it believes it can improve, including process improvement and more training for its employees.  We support these efforts.

Best Regards,

Craig Jelinek