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From Today's New York Times

Animal Ethics

To the Editor: Re “They’re Going to Wish They All Could Be California Hens” (front page, March 4): While the conditions in California’s colony cages are certainly better than those of the barren battery cages used for 90 percent of egg-laying hens in this country, they still involve cramming 60 animals into a wire cage, each bird with just 116 square (..)

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From Today's New York Times

Animal Ethics

Though chickens can live for 5 to 11 years, after two years, they are hauled away to slaughter just like battery-caged hens. “Free range” does not solve the problem of painful debeaking, enormously oversized flocks or the unnatural isolation of the birds from other sexes and age groups. Jean Bettanny Port Townsend, Wash., 13, 2007