Cruel Cages: Hens suffering on British egg farm
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Over 40% of hens in the UK are currently crammed into cages and locked away for life. This cruel confinement cannot continue. SIGN NOW!
Egg Farm Exposé
Animal Equality’s investigation into Kinswood Eggs farm in West Sussex discovered young chicks and hens packed into overcrowded cages. Stacked four tiers high in gigantic sheds, this facility holds hundreds of thousands of hens every year. With less space than an A4 piece of paper each, these birds suffer extremely, both physically and psychologically. These scenes were captured on a quality assured, ‘Laid in Britain’ certified egg farm.
Kinswood Eggs forces chicks into cages from a very young age – they are just days old when they enter the farm. All aspects of the chicks’ lives are closely controlled in order to minimise costs and maximise egg size.
Hens are packed into in extremely overcrowded cages, with as many as 100 birds in a single cage. The hens receive less space than an A4 piece of paper each. They struggle to move around or stretch their wings.
Due to the poor and stressful housing conditions, many hens suffer from severe feather loss – some are nearly bald. Other hens show signs of painful hernias and red, raw skin.
These birds spend 85 weeks trapped inside bare, metal cages, before they are taken to slaughter. Kinswood Eggs fails to afford them even the most basic of provisions. The hens are not given adequate ‘enrichment’ as the law requires, preventing them from carrying out certain natural behaviours.
Decaying carcasses are left to rot in cages amongst the flocks of living birds.
Chickens aren’t the only animals living in these gigantic sheds. Animal Equality investigators also found mice, maggots and flies in these filthy, unhygienic conditions.
These chickens were grossly crowded, in a barren environment devoid of virtually any environmental enrichment, and unable to exercise key […] natural behaviours. Such conditions cause chronic stress.
Professor Andrew Knight
University of Winchester
Ban Brutal Cages
Companies like to paint a picture of happy hens lovingly laying eggs for us to eat, yet they fail to add that 41% of hens in the UK are kept in cages.
As a nation of animal lovers, we must demand that this unacceptable treatment of animals comes to a close.
A petition calling to ‘End the Cage Age’ – led by Compassion in World Farming – garnered support from over 100,000 British citizens. This call to ban cages for all farmed animals is supported by Animal Equality and many fellow animal protection organisations. In March 2020 Defra responded, stating that it was “examining the future use of cages for all laying hens”. Whilst we are pleased to see this progress, hens need actions, not words.
Cruel cages must be banned, without delay.
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