Peep Show.

I finally did it.  I thought I never would.  I've deliberately avoided it all of my life, disgusted by the thought and by the visual.  But, yes, I did it... And I might regret it.

I bought Peeps.

It was my primary mission upon entering Target the other day:  to buy Peeps.  Little did I know what a complicated process it would be.  For starters, they were not selling them as the individual 3 or 4 peeps to a pack as I had remembered.  Instead, they had Costco-esque multi-packages consisting of three five-to-a-pack packages (a total of fifteen of sugar coated little marshmallow chicks) for $1.59.  Had I known that I was going to have to fork out $1.59 for these glo-chicks that appear to have been raised on a toxic waste site (and perhaps that is where they belong), much less, buy a whole fifteen of them, I may not have set foot in Target.

But, by the time I made a special stop at Target, my mind was made up.  This Easter I was going to do something I had never done before:  I would buy Peeps.

As if having no choice but to buy a "three pack" of chicks for $1.59 was not traumatic enough, I was confronted with a choice of colors.  No, not just of the trademark neon yellow and Barbie doll pink that I had remembered, but of alien blue, cyber purple, and chartreuse green.  I must have spent 15 minutes standing in the aisle at Target just staring at the Peeps, asking myself which color shall I get...

Asking myself why I should be wasting my time or spending $1.59 to buy fifteen of these silly little chemically coated, calorie-filled sugar chicks when I knew that my gag reflex likely would prevent me from even swallowing a single bite of one.  I was seeking to embrace my recent "just live a little," "do something daring or crazy" mantra; but, the thought of all the ways that my $1.59 (plus 9.5% sales tax in Issaquah) could be better spent. 

I was about to just leave Target, Peepless.  Nobody would know.  It wouldn't be the first time I had decided to muster the nerve to do something and then backed out.

But, with the chocolate bunnies across the aisle urging me on, I quickly grabbed the cyber purple Peeps and headed to the check-out.  No looking back.  I made my way home, with only minimal buyer's remorse, and unpacked the Peeps.

I have exchanged furtive glances with the Peeps sitting on the countertop for the past few days, trying to think of all the different uses that one could make with Peeps, short of digesting them.

Then it occurred to me.  I could use the Peeps as a teaser for my blog--as a segue for a blog post seeking to raise awareness of a standard in the egg-laying chicken industry that I believe borders on abhorrent.

The Peeps cracked a smile, I loosened the cellophane, and together, we sit down to share with you a few timely facts about battery-caged chickens and the current Initiative Effort that would prohibit the use of battery-cages for egg-laying chickens in Washington State.

"On average, each caged laying hen is afforded only 67 square inches of cage space—less space than a single sheet of letter-sized paper --on which to live her entire life. Unable even to spread their wings, caged laying hens are among the most intensively confined animals in agribusiness.  Caged hens also suffer from the denial of many natural behaviors such as nesting, perching, and dustbathing, all important for hen welfare.  The worst torture to which a battery hen is exposed is the inability to retire somewhere for the laying act. For the person who knows something about animals it is truly heart-rending to watch how a chicken tries again and again to crawl beneath her fellow cagemates to search there in vain for cover."  (Excerpted from http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/confinement_farm/facts/cage-free_vs_battery-cage.html).  

You may have heard of the current initiative that many animal welfare advocates are trying to get on the ballot, and get enacted into law, here in Washington.  It is I-1130 and would eliminate the widespread use of "battery cages" in Washington for raising and farming egg-laying chickens.   I-1130 does not go as far as many animal welfare advocates (including myself) would like (i.e. requiring egg-laying chickens to be completely free range) but it does at least require use of cages that are less-cramped.  The measure is supported by even the less "extreme" animal welfare groups such as the U.S. Humane Society.

The cost to the egg industry to transition from current battery cage systems to the larger caged system is estimated at about one cent per egg, or twelve cents for a dozen eggs.  I like to think that we as consumers (even the savvy shopper ones like me) would be willing to pay an additional twelve or fifteen cents for a dozen of eggs if it means that the chickens that are laying them for us are at least being raised in a cage where they can turn around, lay down, and partially stretch their wings.  For more on I-1130, click here or here.  Business such as Starbucks and UW have indicated a commitment to move towards buying/using eggs from farms that do not keep chickens in battery cages.

My Peeps and I are hoping that you will support  I-1130 (obliging those annoying signature gatherers in front of grocery stores, and taking just a minute to sign your name so that I-II30 will make it on the November ballot).  When you think about it, perhaps you will search out the cage-free eggs when at the grocery store, even if they cost you an extra twelve cents.  (The fact that a carton says it has the Egg Industry's seal of approval and that the eggs are raised in accordance with "standard husbandry practices" or the like typically means that the egg laying chickens are raised in battery cages, as that is the current industry standard). 

Chickens will be happier and your eggs might just be prettier, like these ones that Jodi, Leslie and I died this weekend:

Thanks for your interest in my blog and the subject matter.