One of the first animal welfare issues to be addressed by thousands of food businesses in the United States and across the globe is the transition to cage-free housing systems for laying hens. Despite commitments from corporate giants like Starbucks, Unilever, Nestle, and more, the majority of egg-laying hens in the United States are still confined in small, wire cages called “battery cages.”
In a battery cage, on average, a hen is only given space less than the size of a single sheet of computer/letter-sized paper on which to live her entire life. Natural behaviors, even ones as basic as the stretching of her wings, are denied and impact hen welfare. Thus, it is not surprising that numerous scientists and other experts have definitively spoken out against the use of battery cages.
Study after study demonstrates that animal welfare, including the welfare of laying hens, is an important issue for American consumers.
Global public relations firm Ketchum released a study that found animal welfare was the top cause Americans cared about. They ranked animal welfare just above children’s education and hunger.
The Hartman Group’s “Sustainability” report found that animal welfare is in the top four attributes consumers value, along with avoidance of toxins, fair labor practices, and minimizing pollution.
The top animal welfare practices cited as likely to increase product purchases included animals not being mistreated while alive and animals raised in as natural an environment as possible.
In a survey conducted for the ASPCA, 77% of consumers said they are concerned about the welfare of animals raised for food.
Contact us today to see how we can, free of charge, help you do some good for both animals and your business.
More than 2,000 companies have decided to ban caged eggs from their supply chains worldwide by 2025 at the latest and thus promote higher welfare for laying hens.
Notably, in addition to the many nationwide and regional cage-free policies, over 100 prominent global grocery stores, manufacturers, hospitality companies, and foodservice companies have also announced that they will source exclusively cage-free eggs throughout their international operations.
View the ever-growing list of commitments to cage-free egg supplies across the globe.
Food industry leaders around the globe are switching to 100% cage-free eggs — over 2,000 companies around the world have already pledged to do so.
Due to the extreme lack of space it is not possible for laying hens to carry out their species-specific natural behaviors, leading to severe health problems. These basic behaviors deprived of hens include pecking on the ground, taking refuge in trees, taking sand baths, nesting, and even spreading their wings completely. The unnatural husbandry leads to enormous health problems for many animals. The most common problems with caged housing are:
In the U.S., about 75% of hens are packed into wire cages. On average, each hen has less living space than a standard piece of printer paper. Inside these cages, they are forced to stand or crouch on the cages’ hard wires, which cut their feet. Because of the living conditions, hens often die in their cages. They are sometimes left to rot in the same space alongside living birds.
Hens are mutilated in the egg industry. Due to the stress of such intense confinement, hens engage in unnatural behaviors. Self-mutilation and even cannibalism are common. As a result, workers cut off a portion of their sensitive beaks without any painkillers.
The intensive confinement of farmed animals can have negative public health implications. For example, confining hens in cages increases rates of Salmonella, the leading cause of food poisoning related death in the United States. Improvements in animal welfare can improve food safety by reducing stress-induced immunosuppression, infectious disease incidence, pathogen shedding, and antibiotic use and resistance.
Our international team will be pleased to inform and advise you on this topic for your locations here in the United States and abroad, especially in Brazil, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Male chicks, deemed economically worthless due to their inability to lay eggs and not being the breed of chicken used for meat, are killed on their day of hatch, often through maceration (shredding/grinding) or gassing. Male chick culling is another area of animal welfare gaining increasing traction - including country-wide bans on certain practices used for killing the newborn chicks. You can find more information about alternatives to male chick killing here.