Hens shouldn't have to lay eggs. We've selectively bred chickens to lay more than they should. Many lay almost 300 eggs per year, instead of the 10 or so that nature intended. You can imagine how hard it is to produce a large egg every 25 hours. It robs calcium from their bones. It leads to deadly complications including prolapsed vents (their uterus turned inside out) and ovarian cancer. It is painful to watch pet chickens lay themselves to death especially when it's easily preventable. 

The drug "Deslorelin" is a hormonal implant that is injected under the skin which prevents a chicken from laying eggs for 4 months. Problem is, this is illegal to do in the USA unless the FDA approves it. 

Unfortunately the drug is only approved for Ferrets. Everyone knows how well it works for chickens but it is banned. Why? The trepidation of officially endorsing treatment stems from pre-conceived notions of what is a companion animal and what is food. The FDA wants to clearly designate chickens as a food resource. Officially they fear what might happen if the implant is no longer used and people start to eat the eggs. 

It's hard to know what the withdrawal time would be to safely eat eggs from a chicken that had the implant without some of the drug ending up in the eggs a human would eat. But for a pet chicken owner, they would know better than to eat the eggs and often would rather not have any eggs to eat. We would rather have our feathered friends live long happy healthy lives free from the pressures of egg laying. 

Doctors should be allowed to administer medication which is known to work without worry of legal repercussions. Animal caregivers should be allowed to use techniques to enrich the lives of animals. Doctors should not turn patients away from life saving techniques due to arbitrary laws. 

Please sign this petition to let the FDA know you care about the quality of life for hens. 

You can read more about Deslorelin here: https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/deslorelin