The horrors of egg production on modern factory farms have gained national attention with the prosecution of one of the nation's top egg producers on animal cruelty charges. Stemming from an undercover investigation by a worker affiliated with the Washington, D.C.-based group Compassion Over Killing, the manager and owner of Esbenshade Farms have each been charged with 35 counts of animal cruelty. For each count, the two men face up to 90 days in jail for the treatment of hens on their Pennsylvania farm. These are the first animal cruelty charges ever brought against a factory farm regarding the everyday living conditions of egg laying hens.

After obtaining a job maintaining a hen house, undercover investigator John Brothers worked from November 30th to December 9th, 2005 documenting conditions inside Esbenshade Farms. In graphic detail, the footage taken at the Mount Joy, Penn. farm shows thousands of birds in overcrowded cages so small they cannot spread their wings; hens with wings, legs, or feet entangled in wire cages; birds left in the aisles to starve to death; chickens impaled cage wires, and living hens confined amongst the decomposing bodies of dead ones. COK presented the disturbing footage to a local humane officer who initiated the criminal prosecution, triggering this landmark legal case. Successful prosecution would be a precedent-setting victory for the 347 million hens confined by the egg industry, making factory farms legally culpable and publicly exposing an industry that would rather keep its secrets hidden.

Sadly, animals raised for food are most often exempt from cruelty statutes. Agribusiness is responsible for both breeding the majority of animals born in the U.S., and for inflicting the most widespread cruelty upon them. Of all farmed animals, chickens raised for eggs are the most intensively confined, with the average laying hen crowded into an 18" x 20" cage so small she cannot even lift a wing. Typically, seven or eight birds are kept in a space barely larger than the size of half a sheet of newspaper. In these horrific conditions, birds generally live two years before being sent to the slaughterhouse. The investigation of Esbenshade farms may mean trouble for an industry that depends on secrecy and has brought nothing but misery to millions of animals for so long.

This case is expected to be decided in mid-April. For the animals, a courtroom victory next month could lead to many more against other factory farms. This is a rare chance for the story of animal agriculture's most abused captives to finally be told in a courtroom, bringing legal accountability to factory farmers and justice to their victims.