Ahead of the upcoming European Parliament vote on the Resolution on the European Citizens’ Initiative “End the Cage Age” (2021/2633(RSP)) planned for the week of 7 June, I ask you to support a phase out of the use of cages in animal farming and vote in favour of the Resolution.

Together with 1.4 million people across the EU who signed the ‘End the Cage Age’ European Citizens’ Initiative, I call on you to spare the unnecessary suffering of the hundreds of millions of farmed animals across the EU, who still spend all or part of their lives in cages, pens or stalls.

Egg-laying hens in the so-called ‘enriched cages’ have only the space of about an A4 sheet of paper, which does not allow them to perform basic needs such as dustbathing and wing-flapping. Rabbits raised for meat are sometimes unable to stretch up or out fully and generally do not have enough space to perform a single hop. Almost all adult female pigs spend nearly half of every year inside crates, in which they cannot even turn around.

In February this year, over 140 scientists, including the famous ethologist Dr. Jane Goodall, called on the EU to end the use of cages in farming. About a month later, major food producers and retailers including Unilever, Nestlé, Barilla, Ferrero and Mondelēz confirmed that a cage-free future is possible and called on the EU to act. During the European Parliament Hearing of the Initiative in April, it received support by the vast majority of MEPs, the Committee of the Regions, as well as the EU Health and Agriculture Commissioners.

I thus call on you, as a directly elected representative of the European people, to vote in favour of the Resolution supporting the ‘End the Cage Age’ European Citizens’ Initiative.

End The Cage Age - Email Irish MEPs

End The Cage Age - Email Irish MEPs