Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has come out against battery hen farming and appealed to
people to switch to eggs of chickens kept outside cages.
The statement from the Nobel peace laureate comes amid an intensified campaign by animal rights groups in various parts of the world against the practice of factory-style egg farming
in which the birds are cramped into cages.
"I am troubled to learn about the practice of confining egg laying hens in tiny cages... Each hen has less space to live than the very sheet of paper I have written this letter on," said a letter from the 75-year-old leader posted on the website of the Humane Society International, which has launched a campaign on the issue.
"Turning these defenceless animals into egg-producing machines with no consideration for their welfare whatsoever is a degradation of our own humanity. Switching to cage-free eggs
would reduce the suffering of these animals," he said.
US states of Michigan and California have passed laws to phase out the use of cages to confine hens while prominent US corporations like Burger King and Safeway are switching to cage-free eggs, the organisation said.