By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer

After more than 40 years in the egg business, the monks of Mepkin Abbey plan to phase out egg production, which has been their livelihood and main source of income.

The announcement, made Wednesday on the abbey’s Web site (www.mepkinabbey.org), coincides with a protest today by the animal rights group People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals at the Piggly Wiggly supermarket on Meeting Street, where Mepkin’s eggs are sold.

PETA has pressured Mepkin Abbey for months about the practice of keeping its chickens in small wire cages, which the organization deems cruel but which is the most common method of egg farming. PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said about 5% of egg farms in the country are cage-free producers and had urged the Trappist monastery in Moncks Corner to consider adapting that method.

Father Stan Gumula, abbot of Mepkin Abbey, in March asked PETA to recommend ways to alter its egg operation and said he would consider their suggestions. Gumula also denied any mistreatment of the monastery’s chickens and said its operations met national standards. In November, the monastery began a process of selecting members for an advisory board to review its egg production processes.

PETA officials said its latest protest was organized because the abbey so far has not changed any of its practices or implemented any of PETA’s suggestions.

In a letter posted on Mepkin Abbey’s Web site, Gumula said the monastery will phase out its egg production business in the next year and a half. Gumula said the monks are sad to give up the hard and honorable work of which they are proud, but pressure from PETA has made it hard for them to live their quiet life of prayer, work and sacred reading.

“We will be looking for a new industry to help us meet our daily expenses,” Gumula said. “We hope to find a source of income that will respect this tradition of work on the land and care for the environment.”

Egg sales generate about $140,000 a year for the abbey, which is more than half its annual earned income, Gumula told the National Catholic Reporter.

Mary Jeffcoat, spokeswoman for Mepkin Abbey, said the monastery did not want to release any more statements at this point other than the letter it posted on its Web site.