VIC: Protesters target supermarkets selling battery hen eggs

AAP General News (Australia)
04-03-1999
VIC: Protesters target supermarkets selling battery hen eggs

MELBOURNE, April 3 AAP - Bemused shoppers jostled with protestors and media crews at
supermarket check outs this morning as animal liberation groups descended on shops that sold
battery hen eggs.

In the trendy inner-Melbourne suburb of Prahran, about 20 protestors wearing chicken masks
and brandishing placards distributed leaflets to Coles shoppers urging them to boycott
battery-produced eggs.

A spokeswoman for Animal Liberation (Vic), Rheya Linden, said similar Easter Saturday
protests were taking place throughout Melbourne and regional centres including Geelong,
Ballarat, Bendigo, Melton, Mornington, Dandenong, Woodend and the Yarra Ranges.

"The next few months will see teams of battery busters descending on supermarkets in
statewide and national actions," Ms Linden said.

"We're targetting Coles and Safeway because of the virtual monopoly of egg sales these two
supermarket chains hold, as well as their tendency to justify shelves full of battery-produced
eggs in terms o'freedom of choice'," she said.

"Consumer choice is the pathetic and dishonest excuse offered by our State Government and
the supermarkets as they continue to support greedy egg producers in subjecting millions of
birds to lives of total deprivation and abuse."

Ms Linden said shoppers could choose from the many available brands of accredited
free-range eggs if they had the opportunity to make an informed choice by means of true
labelling on battery egg cartons.

"Images of fat happy hens and terms such as 'Good Country Eggs', 'farm fresh' and
'intensive animal care systems', hide the truth and mislead the public," she said.

"Millions of battery hens live out their lives in a space smaller than an A4-size sheet of
paper, to produce most of the eggs sold in Australian shops and supermarkets."

Coles' Prahran store manger Russell Philipson declined to comment, saying the matter was in
the hands of Coles' public relations department.

AAP ba/jjs

KEYWORD: EGGS

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