New Zealand egg producers today welcomed the release by MAF of the country’s most comprehensive investigation into hen welfare. The detailed science-based assessment was commissioned in 2007 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF). It compares hen welfare in the three key egg production systems, including cage, barn and free range.

The animal-rights group PETA is preparing a campaign against McDonald's Corp., hoping to pressure the fast-food giant into changing the way millions of chickens are raised and slaughtered. With its campaign, budgeted at about $500,000 this year, PETA is hoping to spur industry-wide change by pressuring an iconic chain that uses three billion eggs and 290 million chickens a year.

RALEIGH -- North Carolina's meat industries are battling a bill the Humane Society of the United States and its vegan president say is meant to protect puppies, warning instead that it is the first step toward ending meat eating as we know it.