Scam shocks Wairarapa chicken farmer

HUMANE: Henergy Eggs Cage-Free founder and shareholder Graeme Napier in one of his chook barns, where chickens can roam free without the threat of predators. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

"Horrified" is how chicken farmer Graeme Napier feels about the Northland chicken farmer who duped customers by claiming his eggs came from cage-free chickens.

The founder and shareholder of Henergy Eggs Cage-Free spoke to the Times-Age about the case of Northland egg producer John Garnett, owner of the now-defunct Forest Hill Farm, who was convicted of falsely packaging and selling more than 206,000 dozen eggs as free-range or barn-laid. Instead, the chickens were caged.

"I'm horrified. Consumers are being tricked and duped into believing they are buying free-range when in fact the eggs are from caged chickens. That's disgusting," he said.

Such behaviour brought disrepute to the industry and raised questions about genuine free-range and barn egg producers who were doing the right thing, Mr Napier said.

"It's unfair. People want cruelty-free fresh eggs," he said.

People who bought free-range expected just that, Mr Napier said.

Henergy Eggs does not claim to be free-range but it has 80,000 hens living in barns. The hens have space to walk around, interact with other hens, freely drink and eat, scratch around and bathe in the dust, and they even have a dark, sheltered place where they can go and lay their eggs in private.

His hens are friendly and whenever Mr Napier goes into one of the barns he feels a bit like the "pied piper" as the chooks flock around him and follow him wherever he goes.

"They are so friendly," he said.

Henergy is treating its chickens right too.

In 1999, it was awarded the coveted SPCA Blue Tick award, which guarantees high welfare standards for animal products such as eggs and pork. This humane certification provides consumers with certainty when buying.

Henergy chooks are provided with the five freedoms: to not be hungry or thirsty, protected from predators, free of pain and disease, free to express normal behaviour and free from discomfort.