To the Editor:

Re “Free the Hens, Costco!” (Op-Ed, July 10):

Bill Maher is correct that battery cages torment hens, but cage-free facilities are far from idyllic. I was part of an investigation into a “certified humane,” cage-free egg facility. The birds were crammed by the hundreds of thousands into seemingly endless sheds mired in filth.

Mr. Maher asks us to imagine cramming cats or dogs into tiny cages, so let us imagine instead cramming hundreds of thousands of cats and dogs into a congested shed where cannibalism is rife, mutilation remains standard and disease is rampant. Most Americans would rightly object. But this is what happens every day to millions of hens — in both battery cage and cage-free systems.

PRIYA SAWHNEY

Oakland, Calif.

The writer is an organizer of the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere.

To the Editor:

As Bill Maher rightly argues, the keeping of laying hens in battery cages is among the cruelest practices in modern farming. Further, poultry have essentially no legal protection from cruelty; the federal Animal Welfare Act specifically excludes farm animals.