THE HUMAN BATTERY CAGE
The Human Battery Cage is a piece of animal rights-themed installation art that debuted at Hearts For Hens Day and will be touring the country in 2007, taking in all State capital cities and many regional areas around Australia. The installation is designed to raise public awareness of the plight of the 10 million laying hens kept in battery cages in Australia.
The Human Battery Cage holds around a dozen people in conditions similar (but somewhat more comfortable) to those in which battery hens live their entire lives. The cages will be on display in prominent public locations in cities across Australia, with the tour taking the cages as far as Perth to the west, Cairns to the north, and Hobart to the 
south. Volunteers will take turns to sit inside the cages, and other volunteers will be outside the cages talking to the public and answering questions about the battery cage system. Local media will be engaged at each location throughout the tour so as to maximise the public profile of the installation, and streaming video footage and a daily blog will be available on the Human Battery Cage website.
The intention of the installation is to portray the confined and inhumane conditions in which laying hens are kept throughout their lives in a manner that the general public can easily relate to. It aims to challenge community views on the acceptable uses of nonhuman animals and gather public pressure to demand changes to laws regarding laying hens.
Volunteers are being sought from all around the country to offer their time - even if it's as little as half an hour - to sit in the cages or talk to the public about the conditions of caged hens in Australia.
Please visit http://www.humanbatterycage.com/ for more information and to volunteer.
Facts about caged hens in Australia:
* Over 10 million hens are kept in battery cages around the country, in windowless sheds that hold many 
thousands of hens. The sheds are artificially lit around the clock so as to simulate constant daylight, the result of which is an unnaturally fast egg-laying cycle.
* Each cage holds three or more hens; the floor-space available to each is significantlylessthananA4sheet of paper.
* A battery hen is deprived of the opportunity to satisfy her most basic instincts - to perch, preen, scratch, dust-bathe, lay her eggs in a nest, and spread her wings.
* Battery hens have part of their beaks sliced off with a hot blade to prevent them from pecking at other hens in their cramped cages - this de-beaking severs sensitive nerves in a hen's beak.
* Hens become significantly de-feathered over the course of their lives as a result of rubbing against their cages in reaching for food and water. Their exposed skin is prone to pecking by other hens and becomes easily infected.
* In her natural environment, a hen's claws are normally worn down as she walks. In a cage, they grow long and sometimes curl around the wire floor, leaving her unable to move.
* A battery hen's bones become brittle due to her lack of exercise and over-production of eggs. By the time hens are taken to slaughter, many are unable to stand and have untreated fractures or broken bones.
* Despite having a natural lifespan of around 10 years, a caged hen's economic usefulness is only around 12-18 months. At this point, she is sent to slaughter and used for pet food or soup stock.
* Male chicks are of no use to egg farmers, so are killed when a day old using methods including mincing and suffocation.
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