Ahold Delhaize: End cages now!
Ahold Delhaize is allowing animal cruelty
Multinational supermarket giant Ahold Delhaize continues to allow one of the cruellest factory farming practices: confining animals in cages for their entire lives. Despite eliminating this cruelty in Europe, it continues to allow the suffering of animals in the United States. This double standard must end – millions of animals are continuing to suffer in extreme confinement.
The company claims to ‘truly believe that supporting animal welfare is the right thing to do’, but actions speak louder than words. Years ago, Ahold Delhaize pledged to end the use of cages for pigs and hens in its US supply chain, aligning the company with its European practices. These cages have been publicly condemned due to their small size, with nearly a dozen US states and the European Union restricting or banning their use. While other forms of cruel cages exist here, so-called ‘gestation cages’ for mother pigs and barren ‘battery’ cages for hens are actually illegal in the UK. Ahold Delhaize – which has links to recognised companies in the UK, like jewellery brand Pandora – continues to delay progress and has remained alarmingly silent about any steps forward to end this needless animal suffering.
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The company behind major U.S. supermarket brands – Food Lion, Giant, Stop & Shop, Hannaford – is allowing animal abuse. Tell Ahold Delhaize that empty promises don’t empty cages. Demand it ends the use of cages for pregnant pigs and hens immediately.
Sign the petition and demand a meaningful commitment to end cages for animals from Ahold Delhaize.
Ahold Delhaize’s vague response
At Ahold Delhaize’s annual shareholder meeting in April 2025, activists staged powerful protests both inside and outside the event, demanding accountability for the company’s broken promises on animal welfare. A shocking undercover investigation at a pig farm linked to Ahold Delhaize was released right before the meeting. When pressed, CEO Frans Muller offered vague, empty statements – responses that failed to address the stark realities of animal suffering within Ahold Delhaize’s supply chain.
Sharon Núñez
Companies as huge as Ahold Delhaize should show responsibility and reliability over the commitments they make. The company is knowingly supporting practices that cause immense suffering to animals, while betraying the trust of their customers. We want answers and a commitment from Ahold Delhaize that it will end the use of cages now.
President
Animal Equality
Gestation crates for pigs are a real problem… Basically, you’re asking a mother pig to live in an airline seat.
Temple Grandin
I think it’s something that needs to be phased out.
Associate Professor, Department of Animal Science.
Colorado State University
[T]he close confinement of mother pigs in stalls or tethers is one of the most extreme examples of cruelty to an animal. It continues throughout much of life and is much worse than severely beating an animal.
Donald M. Broom
Professor of Animal Welfare.
University of Cambridge
Confinement of mother pigs during pregnancy, especially in individual stalls or on tethers, can be cold, uncomfortable and injurious, and imposes severe restrictions on natural behaviour.
John Webster
Sr. Research Fellow and Emeritus Professor of Animal Husbandry and creator of The Five Freedoms.
University of Bristol
Gestation cages:
The cruellest confinement of pigs
These 213 by 60cm cages take an immense physical and mental toll on the animals.
Pigs cannot walk, turn around, or stand comfortably in these cages. Beneath them are hard floors with slats for the urine and faeces to fall through before collecting in giant outdoor waste lagoons.
Professor Ian Duncan, a scholar of animal welfare at the University of Guelph, has described it as “one of the cruellest forms of confinement devised by humankind.”
Ahold Delhaize is authorising extreme animal suffering
Pregnant pigs are confined to cages of 213 by 60cm that don’t let them turn around.
Research shows that these cages – gestation crates – cause physical and psychological suffering:
- Unable to move, their bones and muscles weaken.
- Some pigs suffer from open wounds due to the constant abrasion against the cage bars.
- Many develop cardiovascular problems.
- Overgrown hooves that cause them pain when they stand.
- Some struggle with digestive problems.
- and others endure painful urinary infections.
Hens trapped in cages
Hens are social animals who like to forage for food, take dust baths, perch, and care for their chicks.
In Ahold Delhaize’s US operations, hens used for eggs are crammed into cages with other birds, leaving each hen with less space than a standard letter.
The hens cannot spread their wings, perch, roost, nest, dust-bathe, forage, or explore.
They are often handled violently, and their bones often break when their wings get caught in the wire. They are forced to live like this for up to two years.
Because of the poor conditions, many hens die and rot in the cage alongside other birds.
Ahold Delhaize is losing public trust
In the United States, 14 states have banned or restricted the use of cages for pregnant pigs and/or hens, and thousands of companies worldwide – including international Ahold Delhaize supply chains – are eliminating cages.
Ahold Delhaize says, ‘Farm animal well-being is not only a good business practice – because our customers expect and trust us to do the right thing – but we truly believe that supporting animal welfare is the right thing to do.’
But the supermarket giant has pushed off progress on animal welfare, leaving millions of animals to suffer.
Disclaimer: Images represent factory farms that use cages. They do not necessarily supply to Ahold Delhaize.
Stop animal abuse with every meal
Pigs, hens, and other animals feel pain and deserve to be protected from abuse.
You can protect these innocent animals by simply choosing plant‑based alternatives.
