Thank you for this report. Really interesting to learn about a new animal welfare intervention—I never knew that osteoporosis was such a big problem for laying hens.
I had a couple of questions:
In the linked cost-effectiveness analysis, you estimate that the average flock size in 2007 was 25,500 hens. Based on a growth rate of 6-8% in the Indian egg industry per year, you estimate that the average flock size in 2019 is approximately 59,000 hens. This seems to assume that no new farms were built in that decade, and that all new hens in India were added to existing flocks. Am I understanding this correctly, as it seems unlikely to me that no new farms would have been built?
One of the two Indian animal advocates you interviewed raised concerns that this intervention might be ‘humane-washing’ and would ‘actively undermine the work being done by animal advocates in the country’. Later in the report you write ‘We struggled to find any empirical research on humane washing to have a good sense of whether this is a valid concern.’ Although you did interview one other animal advocate in India who felt that this wasn’t a concern, it seems like a red flag that 1 out of 2 of the advocates you interviewed thought that this intervention would ‘actively undermine’ the movement. Personally, I’m not sure what I think about this, but I can definitely see a concern that the intervention is supporting profit-making in the industry rather than bringing systemic change. I’d be interested whether you did any deeper analysis of how this intervention fits within the wider animal advocacy strategy in India?
This is so awesome! Glad that things have gotten off to such a promising start! Thank you for the clear and thoughtful write-up :)