PETALING JAYA: A consumer and animal rights group has accused two egg suppliers to a major Pan-Asian retailer of operating under unsanitary and cruel conditions, barely a year after another egg farm in Johor was denounced for similar practices.
Equitas said, based on undercover footage shot last year, these two companies showed “filth, food safety risks and animal cruelty” at these sites.
This includes faeces smeared over egg-conveyor belts, equipment and animals, which posed serious food safety risks. Dead birds were also seen rotting in the aisles next to hens laying eggs.
Equitas spokesman Emily Hogan also alleged that mother hens spent “their entire lives crammed in cages so small they could barely turn around”.
“At a time when the entire region is fighting a pandemic caused by lapses in food safety, this retailer continues to put profits ahead of customers,” she said in a statement.
When contacted, Hogan told FMT that they were aware that the retailer sold eggs from caged hens.
“This led us to investigate the farms supplying eggs to the retailer.”
FMT has contacted the two egg suppliers and is awaiting their response.
In August last year, Hong Kong-based Lever Foundation, an animal protection interest organisation, claimed that an egg farm in Johor supplying to a UK hypermarket chain had been operating in unsavoury conditions.
The foundation claimed it had found rotting carcasses cramped with other hens in cages, which were covered in animal faeces. It said this posed serious food safety risks.
It posted online a series of pictures and videos to prove the claims and even publicised the GPS satellite coordinates of the farm.
It also criticised the hypermarket for getting its eggs from a supplier using “cruel” methods to rear chickens. - FMT
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