San Francisco, U.S.A. - The Humane Farming Association (HFA) and a coalition of animal protection organizations are applauding the Senate’s rejection of Senator Dianne Feinstein’s controversial “Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2012″ (S. 3239) to the Farm Bill. Referred to by many as the Rotten Egg Bill , Feinstein’s measure is modeled on a similar bill (H.R. 3798) that was introduced by Rep. Kurt Schrader in the House earlier this year over the vehement objections of animal advocates nationwide.

“We applaud this Senate action which puts the rights and best interests of the American public ahead of the cynical political interests of the egg industry,” said Bradley Miller, National Director of the Humane Farming Association. “The egg industry is seeking to establish egg factory cages as a national standard that could never be challenged or changed by state law or public vote,” continued Miller.”Senator Feinstein’s amendments would preempt state laws, such as California’s Proposition 2, and is a direct assault upon egg laying hens’, voters’, and states’ rights.”

S. 3239 and H.R. 3798 would codify a controversial deal between the United Egg Producers (UEP) — the egg industry trade association recently sued for an alleged price-fixing scheme — and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which is now endorsing the same egg factory cages it had long opposed.

“The Rotten Egg Bill would be disastrous for laying hens who would be forever locked in cages — as well as for millions of voters whose rights would be traded away,” said Miller.

The Humane Farming Association had recently expanded its ad campaign to further expose UEP’s price-fixing scandal. UEP and several of the egg companies it represents have been sued repeatedly for alleged illegal price fixing, paying $25 million to settle allegations that they illegally manipulated the price and supply of eggs under the guise of instituting standards for animal welfare.

With active lawsuits pending against them from companies such as General Mills and Kraft Foods — UEP and its co-defendants are asking Congress to codify a set of standards that would, in effect, provide legal cover for the very activities of which they stand accused.

“Fortunately, very few Senators appear willing to jump in the middle of an ongoing price-fixing scandal just to placate an egg industry trade association and a co-opted humane organization,” said Miller.

“According to the bill’s own sponsor, this was introduced to protect the economic interests of the egg industry,” said Miller.”The American public overwhelmingly supports the banning of egg factory cages, not measures such as this which would ban the outlawing of cages.  Such moves clearly subvert the will of the people.”

“There is no such thing as an ‘enriched’ battery cage. This is an outrageous attempt by the egg industry and its cohorts to enrich themselves at the expense of laying hens and the public at large,” said Priscilla Feral, President of Friends of Animals.

“The cages defined by the legislation will in no meaningful way reduce the unimaginable suffering endured by the hens,” said Nedim C. Buyukmihci, V.M.D., Professor Emeritus of Veterinary Medicine at U.C. Davis. (Read full statement here.)

“Even if this measure passes, the majority of hens will remain entombed in battery cages on factory farms,” said Karen Davis, Ph.D., President of United Poultry Concerns. “They will be locked into a federal law administered by the USDA which does not even enforce the 54-year-old ‘Humane Slaughter Act.’”

In addition to the Humane Farming Association, opponents of S. 3239 and H.R. 3798 include Friends of Animals, United Poultry Concerns, Last Chance for Animals, Action for Animals, Northwest Animal Rights Network, Defend Animals Coalition, Political Animals, Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals, Sunnyskies Bird and Animal Sanctuary, SAFE, Humane Farming Action Fund, Animals Unlimited, Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition, Chicken Run Rescue, Associated Humane Societies, and the vast majority of rank-and-file animal advocates.

All of these organizations urge those who support real progress in animal welfare to contact their federal representatives to voice opposition to these bills.

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Back in August 2010, after a salmonella outbreak spread across the nation, there was an egg recall of 550 million eggs. Newly released records during a civil lawsuit underway in a Federal Court in California show the owner of the egg company involved knew the hens were contaminated with salmonella months before the recall.

According to the Associated Press, the egg mogul Jack DeCoster and his companies asked Iowa State University’s Veterinary Diagnostics Laboratory to test for salmonella back in January 2010. The company was preparing for federal rules set to take effect in July which required mandatory testing for the bacteria at different stages of production. In January 2010, testing began by collecting samples from DeCoster’s plants.

ISU scientist Darrell Trampel wrote in an email, “If SE is in the livers of the laying hens, it is almost certainly in the eggs at this site,” calling it “a very interesting finding.”

In April, ISU’s Veterinary Diagnostics Lab found traces of salmonella in manure at several Iowa egg-laying plants and internal organs of birds, which were dying at unusually high rates. The scientist found that 43 percent of the poultry houses tested positive for salmonella.

The third-party laboratory released its records due to a subpoena from NuCal Foods, a California company suing DeCoster and his companies in federal court. NuCal bought some of the tainted eggs and later had to recall them, being faced with lawsuits from customers who got sick and lost profit after the salmonella outbreak.

“Our role is to provide a third-party quality assured diagnostic service, and it’s up to the client to interpret the information,” said the lab’s operation director, Roger Main, whose 125-employee lab receives $3.2 million in Iowa tax dollars and conducts about 1 million tests every year.

The laboratory reported the findings of salmonella to the egg producer who requested the test alone, and say as a third-party they had no legal or ethical obligation to alert regulators or consumers.

The FDA now requires producers that find salmonella in the product to conduct more tests and destroy the bacteria or change the course of the contaminated eggs to non-food use.

According to the Associated Press, the lawsuit against DeCoster and his companies argues that they “did not initiate egg tests or salmonella decontamination” knowing they were not quality while continuing to sell the products. The lawsuit says the defendants hid the filthy conditions at their farms so that they could continue to profit.

DeCoster gave up control of the Iowa based egg company in 2011, releasing this statement to the Associated Press, “While we are committed to working to address outstanding issues related to the outbreak, it is important to note we no longer operate any of the farms involved and are no longer in the business of egg production.”

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