Vegan trolls target campaigner who gives caged hens a new start
A CHICKEN welfare campaigner who became a social media star alongside her birds has been targeted by extreme vegans who believe eating eggs is evil.
Haidy Mansfield, who gave up her day job as an anti-fraud officer to rescue caged birds and campaign for ethical egg farming, was amazed when her Facebook page where she posted pictures of her hens, Belle and Fleur, grew to having 21,000 fans.
But the positive profile she gained for her work promoting ethical farming turned sour when posts on her page were trolled by “extreme” vegans.
Ms Mansfield, who has nine birds at her Dorset home, believes that chickens must be given ample space in which to scratch around in the open air. But some vegans claimed she was promoting an “evil” lifestyle by asking her followers to buy ethically farmed eggs.
Ms Mansfield said: “I understand their passion and that it’s a very black and white issue for them. They aren’t going to agree, they see me as perpetuating the issue by promoting that people choose to buy ethical eggs. I just say that if you’re going to eat eggs, be mindful about where they’re from.”
She posted on Facebook: “I don’t want to offend anyone. However, there is a faction of vegan society who have taken it upon themselves to sabotage every post I write, and no doubt they will this one. They have no qualms upsetting, belittling or insulting people who eat eggs and support my mission to bring an end to caged egg farming.”
The campaigner said it was a small number of extreme vegans, and that many of her vegetarian and vegan friends supported her mission to make chicken farming more ethical.
Ms Mansfield created the Facebook page after rescuing her first hen from a chicken farm in December, and before long, the page had 21,000 followers.
She said: “People got interested in caged hens, how they exist in modern society and how hens are used this way to produce eggs intensively. They thought battery hen cages had been banned – which they have – but enriched cages are still cages and chickens don’t really have much space.
“I am trying to show people we can make more ethical choices about what eggs we buy.”