The US is doing an amazing thing. It’s about to stop caging egg-laying hens. Now let’s get the UK to do the same.
People power has forced dozens of America’s top food corporations, including Walmart, McDonald’s and Nestlé, to pledge to stop buying eggs from caged hens. The result? In ten years’ time, caged eggs will pretty much be a thing of the past in the US.
But here in the UK, we’re lagging way behind. Supermarket chains from Asda to Tesco still sell eggs from hens kept in disgusting, caged conditions.
Public pressure has persuaded the world’s largest retailer, Walmart, to ban caged eggs in the US. Now let’s get Walmart subsidiary Asda to do the same in the UK.
Will you tell Asda to stop selling eggs from caged hens?
Farm animals deserve a cage-free life. Hens should be able to walk, run, scratch and stretch their wings. But horrifically, more than half of hens in the EU still spend their lives trapped in cages. While conventional battery cages were banned in 2012, “enriched” cages are still allowed -- even though they stop hens from carrying out their natural behaviours.
In the US, retailers have been under mounting pressure to ban eggs from caged hens once and for all. And they’ve listened. Walmart is just the latest in a list of dozens of big food retailers pledging to move to a higher-welfare, cage-free housing system.
Meanwhile, here in the UK, Asda, Aldi, Lidl, Morrisons and Tesco are all still selling eggs from caged systems.
We can change that. The animal welfare revolution happening in the US is proof that public pressure works. And we know that the UK public wants improved animal welfare in the UK. Earlier this month, the government was forced to abandon its plans to replace animal welfare laws with “self-regulation” by the farming industry -- all thanks to public outcry.
As a community, we’ve often come together to stand up against cruelty to animals. If enough of us stand together now, we can end the caged farming of chickens for good. It won’t be easy -- we’ll need to get every supermarket in the UK to commit to selling only cage-free eggs. But, if Walmart can do it, so can the UK’s supermarket chains -- starting with Walmart subsidiary Asda.
Let’s tell Asda to commit to selling only cage-free eggs across the UK.
More information
The Guardian. 11 April 2016.