BY MELISSA CRUZ

In print | September 27, 2007

Starting this semester, the revived Animal Rights Coalition will be coordinating several different campaigns, including the cage-free egg campaign, which began in the spring of 2005 and aims to eliminate all eggs produced by caged hens from Sharples. In the past, Animal Rights Coalition efforts led to the successful removal of veal from Sharples Dining Hall in March 2004, but the group has been less active in past months.

The ARC is making it clear that Swarthmore students don’t need to be permanent vegetarians to support animal rights. Starting this year, the group will be urging students to sign “veg pledges,” which will allow students to pledge to be vegetarian for a limited period of time, according to ARC president Claudia Seixas ’10.

On Oct. 2, the group will have catered foods and hold a screening of the film “Earthlings,” after which interested students will be able to sign a “veg pledge.” The chosen date is significant for several reasons. “Oct. 2 [is] Gandhi’s birthday and International Day of Nonviolence,” Seixas said. “The ARC will also be celebrating World Farm Animals Day.” Seixas also said that the ARCwill be focusing on educational campaigns “to raise awareness on campus of the impact of issues pertaining to animal rights.”

The cage-free egg campaign, started in spring of 2006, joined the Swarthmore’s ARC with the Humane Society of the United States in an effort to rid the campus of eggs produced by caged hens.

Josh Balk, Outreach Director for the Humane Society of the United States’ Factory Farming Campaign, described the living conditions for a hen living in a cage in a factory farm. “Each hen is given a cage that is smaller than a sheet of paper,” he said. “They are unable to engage in many of their most important natural behaviors including dust bathing, perching, scratching, laying eggs in a nest, and they are unable to do something as simple as stand on ground.” Members of the ARC in the past have worked with Balk to promote the switch to cage-free eggs in Sharples. In April 2006, Swarthmore’s Student Council passed a resolution of support for the use of cage-free eggs in Sharples, according to ARC member Brian Tomasik ’09.“More than 160 colleges and universities across the country have drastically reduced or eliminated the use of eggs from caged hens,” Balk said.

After the ARC met with Dining Services Coordinator Linda McDougall and Student Council last year, the cost of switching Sharples to cage-free eggs was calculated. “would cost about $10,000 more than …… the eggs they use now,” Tomasik ’09 said. He also said that this year, the ARC is also working on establishing an alternative committee to the Student Council for student groups to approach when seeking support for initiatives regarding social responsibility on campus. This body would be called the Institutional Responsibility Committee and would help activist groups on campus in taking the steps to make change happen.

Disclosure note: Clauida Seixas is a reporter for The Phoenix, but had no role in the production of this article.

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