German animal rights group Maqi - For Animal Rights, Against Speciesism conducted an open rescue late Saturday night at a battery hen rearing factory. 30 baby hens were rescued from the factory by Maqi activists, 45,000 had to be left behind. The baby hens were rescued from cages half a square metre in size (14 hens being reared for the battery were crammed into each of these cages). The rescued chicks had been hatched in a breeding facility where the males, useless for egg production, were gassed to death immediately upon hatching. The females were transported to the rearing factory where they were being kept for three months, until they started to lay eggs. The hens are then transported to a battery hen factory, and after a year there when their laying rate starts to deteriorate, they are killed. Maqi spokesperson Tanja Mueller states "Each year over 40 million hens in Germany are caged for egg consumption, that means 80 million dead birds per year." The rescued hens, and two roosters who presumably were missed by the chicken sexers, were taken to a loving sanctuary where they will receive proper care and be able to live out their lives in freedom, never having to know the misery of life in a battery cage.
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