Enriched Cages & Embodied Prisons

‘Enriched Cages & Embodied Prisons’ examines the effect of the ban on barren battery cages on the hens who are exploited by the egg industry, exploring the similarity between barren cages and the new ‘enriched’ or ‘furnished’ battery cage system of confinement. It explores how the ban has coincided with an increase in the consumption of eggs which is highly likely to be due to appeasement of what used to be the leading cause of public awareness of animal rights violations, a fact that will not have been lost on the animal agricultural industry that supported the ‘ban’. The report concludes by examining the multitude of ways in which all egg laying hens, regardless of the environment in which they are exploited or homed (caged, non-caged, free range, organic, back yard and even on sanctuaries) will forever live in embodied prisons, victims of selective breeding by humans so that we can use their eggs for our food.