Brad Pitt slams Costco caged hens policy, calling the selling of such eggs an act of animal cruelty.

The actor penned a letter to CEO Craig Jelink and asked that caged hens eggs no longer be sold in the stores. Pitt also detailed the physical problems and pain the chickens suffer when crammed into cages for extended periods of time.

Caged hens, as Brad Pitt pointed out, often suffer from atrophy of their bones and muscle due to being subjected to years of limited mobility. Caged hens are not longer permitted on most of Europe and in California.

“As you know, these birds producing eggs for your shelves are crammed five or more into cages that are not large enough for even one hen to spread her wings,” the Brad Pitt Costco letter read.

The actor was speaking out on the battery caged hens issue on behalf of the Farm Sanctuary organization. The animal rights group advocates against factory farms and the mistreatment of livestock.

“Chickens used for egg production are among the most abused of all farm animals. In order to meet the consumer demand for eggs, 280 million hens laid 77.3 billion eggs in 2007. From hatching to slaughter, egg-laying hens are subjected to mutilation, confinement, and deprivation of the ability to live their lives as the active, social beings they are,” a report on the Farm Sanctuary website said. “The unnatural feeds, hormones, and excessive quantities of antibiotics used on factory farms put the human population at risk for chronic disease, obesity, and drug-resistant bacteria, and pose the threat of major zoonotic disease outbreaks.”

Pitt also commended Costco for animal welfare successes on other issues and urged CEO Craig Jelink to follow through on an “uncaging” hens promise make in 2007. A statement released by the company last month reportedly stated that there are “vigorous debates about animal welfare and laying hens.”

“Some, such as the Humane Society, advocate that hens be ‘cage free,’ and not confined in cages. Some advocate that cages are safer for hens,” the Costco statement said. The same public release also added that sales of cage-free eggs – or organic eggs, have increased “more than twentyfold” over the course of the past nine years. The discount retail chain reaffirmed its commitment to the “ethical treatment of animals.”

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[Image via: Andrea Raffin/Shutterstock.com]