Desmond Bellamy, Special Projects Coordinator, PETA Australia.
Poor Barnaby Joyce. He wants people to ‘just get out of my face’.
Yet as Agriculture Minister, he presides over the egg industry, which routinely slices the tip off of hens’ sensitive beaks with a hot blade when they are just days old, to discourage the birds from pecking each other in frustration or even engaging in cannibalism. Birds raised for their eggs are packed into wire cages so small that they don’t have room to spread even one wing. The industry admits that feather pecking would be avoided if the birds had an adequate substrate: scratch grain, green vegetables and grass cuttings to dig around in.
Even in the ‘free range’ farms, nearly all chicks have been debeaked at hatcheries before they are delivered.
Mr Joyce, you want people to get out of your face. How about getting the horrendously cruel hot blade out of hens’ faces?
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
