Empathy-Building Activity

This activity was taken from the Sowing Seeds Workbook: A Humane Education Primer by the International Institute of Humane Education.

This activity introduces students to the conditions on modern factory egg farms in a light-hearted, fun, and enjoyable manner. Tell students that this activity will help them learn where the eggs in the supermarket come from.

Ask for two volunteers who are willing to take off their shoes. Pick two friends who are wearing socks. Put two sturdy metal or plastic milk crates in front of the class, upside-down and side-by-side, so that they are touching. Ask the volunteers to remove their shoes and stand on the crates. Make sure that they are comfortable with the situation.

Tell them that the class will pretend that there are metal bars that go up from the sides of the crates, enclosing the two volunteers in a single cage. It works best if you use your hands and arms to outline where the imaginary cage bars are. Tell them that the top of the cage is level with their noses, so they will have to squat in order to stand in the cage. Again, use your hand to indicate where the top of the cage is, and model how to squat so that they can better understand what you are asking of them.

At this point, tell them that they will be in this situation for a while. Ask them to pretend that there is a conveyor belt in front of them and that they can reach through the bars to eat the food on the belt. Tell them that there are tubes of water on both sides of the cage that they can drink from. Next, let them know that if they have to go to the bathroom, they have to go in the cage and let their waste fall through the crate. Remind the volunteers that they are just pretending, and make sure that they are still comfortable with the activity. You may want to adapt these instructions for the grade level that you teach.

Now that the scenario is set up, ask the volunteers the following questions:

1. What thoughts and feelings would you have if you had to stay in the cage for the rest of the day? After they answer, tell them to pretend that they will have to stay in there for an entire week.
2. Show us how you would exercise and stretch if you were kept there for an entire week. The space limitations will prevent them from doing any meaningful stretching or exercising. Ask students if they have ever taken a car or plane ride that lasted several hours. What did it feel like? What did they want to do when it was over? How do they think the volunteers will feel if they are kept in the cage for a week?
3. How would you stay clean? Again, grooming and cleaning are impossible to do in this environment.
4. What would you do for fun?
5. What would happen if one of you became sick? (If it’s a contagious disease, both of them would most likely become ill.)

Next, explain that they need to pretend to be in the cage not just for a week—but for an entire year! Paint a picture for them of what is happening: Tell them that their cage is dirty and smells bad from all the waste that has collected beneath them and that they haven’t been able to clean themselves (so they are dirty and smelly), exercise, or move freely for an entire year. Also, let them know that they have been with each other in these conditions—24 hours a day, seven days a week for an entire year. They have had no privacy from one another, and they are constantly bumping into one another. Ask them how they would feel about each other after a year.

Ask students whether they have ever been in a situation in which they had to be with someone 24 hours a day for a long period of time. What was the experience like? Often, people get irritated and their tempers flare when they have to spend lots of time with another person.

Ask the volunteers what thoughts and feeling they would have if they were in this situation for an entire year. If they are too shy to respond, ask other students how they would feel.

Ask the volunteers how their feet feel. Standing on the slats of the crates can be uncomfortable. Ask them how long they would like to remain up there. Then thank them and ask the class to show appreciation to the volunteers with a round of applause.

Explain that this activity shows how 98 percent of the hens who lay eggs live on modern factory farms. The cages that they are confined to are called “battery cages,” and thousands of these cages are put into a single shed called a “battery unit.” Just like the volunteers, the hens in these cages are unable to clean or groom themselves, exercise, play, or socialize normally. The hens become frustrated, sad, bored, and lonely.

Let students know that many people are working to change the way that hens are treated and ensure that animals are treated more humanely. For example, the European Union is phasing out the use of battery cages by 2012 because the cages were found to be inhumane. Numerous animal protection groups are working to end the use of battery cages in America, as well. And millions of people have stopped eating eggs that are produced by hens kept in battery cages.