orother aquaticanimals.) Sincemostof theseanimals are
raised in factory farms, their suffering lasts their entire lives.
ThefirstbreakthroughforfarmanimalscameinEurope.In
Switzerland, the battery cage system of producing eggs
described in Chapter 3 becameillegal attheend of 1991.
Instead of crammingtheir hens into small wire cagestoo
smallforthebirdstospreadtheirwings,Swisseggproducers
movedthebirdstoshedswheretheycouldscratchonafloor
covered withstraw or otherorganicmaterial and lay their
eggsinasheltered,soft-floorednestingbox.OncetheSwiss
hadshownthatchangeispossible,oppositiontobatterycages
mounted throughout Europe, and the European Union,
coveringtwenty-sevenmemberstatesandalmost 500 million
people,hasnowagreedtophaseoutthestandardbarewire
cageby2012,givinghensmoreroom,accesstoaperch,and
a nesting box to lay their eggs in.
Further steps followed,all with widespread public support
andthebackingoftheEuropeanUnion’sleading scientific
and veterinary experts. As the following pages show,
intensively raised veal calves, deliberately kept anemic,
deprived of straw for bedding, and confined in individual
cratessonarrowthattheycannoteventurnaround,areamong
the most miserable of all farm animals. That system of
keepingcalves had alreadybeenbanned inBritain when I
revised the text of this book for the 1990 edition (which
remainsthetextthatfollowsthispreface).Today,vealcrates
arebanned,notjustinBritain,butthroughouttheEuropean
Union. Matters have also improved for the pig industry’s
breedersows.Confiningpregnantsowsin individualcrates
was banned in Britain in 1998, and willbe prohibited in