Burger King, the second largest hamburger chain, has announced it will no longer buy eggs from suppliers that keep their chickens in battery cages or use electric shock prior to slaughter to make the birds unconscious.

Burger King’s requirements for the humane slaughter for birds goes further than even those demanded for years by animal welfare advocates.

Currently, poultry is not deemed to be included in the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, 7 U.S.C. §§1901-1906. Chickens, turkeys, any poultry can, for the most part, be slaughtered in any manner chosen by the farmer or supplier. Burger King has said it will buy from suppliers that only use gas, or “controlled-atmospheric stunning” on the birds before slaughter. The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act would still allow use of electric shock, which is better than nothing, of course. Only a few slaughter houses are believed to use these other methods, gas or "controlled-atmospheric stunning".

The significance of Burger King’s decision is apparent when you consider how most of these birds live and die: Of the nearly 300 million laying hens in the United States, 95% are crammed into wire "battery cages". There is not enough room for the birds to spread one wing let along both. Each cage measures roughly 36" x 18" x 18" or less and is divided into two 18" x 18" x 18" compartments. Each compartment is the home of several birds. The cages are stacked, allowing excrement from chickens in higher units to fall on those below.

To keep the birds from pecking each other, typically their beaks are cut off with a hot wire. Their beaks are sensitive, and many suffer excruciating pain and severe shock from this act of torture. These birds may live with the pain for years.

If you wonder why these birds would peck each other, it is from the frustration of living their lives in a few inches of space. Chickens are social animals; they love being with other chickens. They are intelligent, curious birds who enjoy dust baths, lying in the sun and scratching for food. The hens have a strong nesting instinct. They love to roost. Hens will cluck to their chicks still in the shell; the chicks chirp back.

Chickens confined in small battery cages can enjoy none of these pleasures of life, ever. Living their lives in small cages in which they can barely move is as frustrating and torturous for them as it would be for your dog, your cat or you.

But that is not all these laying hens endure. They usually constantly suffer broken bones as a result of confinement in this way. These birds are also often deprived of food for as long as 14 days at a time to shock their bodies into producing more eggs. This practice is called forced molting.

After a laying hen’s production of eggs slows, it is shipped to slaughter. These intelligent inquisitive creatures are shoved into small crates and trucked to the slaughterhouse. En route hundreds of millions suffer broken wings and legs from rough handling. Millions die from the stress of the journey. At the slaughterhouse their legs are snapped into shackles, their throats are cut, and they are immersed in scalding hot water to remove their feathers. Most are still conscious when their throats are cut open. It their throats are not cut, they are scalded to death when they are thrown into the hot water. Because the flesh of laying hens is often pretty battered, they are used in chicken soup or cat or dog food.

Some European countries have actually banned battery cages. The entire European Union is phasing out these cages by 2012.

Because so few suppliers keep or slaughter birds humanely, there will necessarily be a period of transition while factory farmers move to these practices of allowing chickens and other birds to move freely around a penned area and using gas or controlled atmospheric stunning in the slaughtering process.

Burger King announced its first goal is 2% cage free eggs from humanely slaughtered birds over the next few months and 5% by the end of the year. It is not clear how cost will be affected.