It’s time for the egg industry to stop cramming hens in cages!

The National Farm Animal Care Council (NFACC) recently released the highly anticipated Recommended Code of Practice for the treatment of egg-laying hens, which failed to require cage-free housing systems.

Animal welfare advocates expected the code, which hadn’t been updated in more than ten years, to require producers to move toward cage-free housing systems to reflect the interests of Canadian taxpayers, consumers, grocers, and food producers, who have begun demanding such a switch. Instead, the new code continues to allow the extreme confinement of egg-laying hens in wire cages—something that is widely regarded as one of the cruelest and most out-of-date factory farming practices in the world. Specifically, the revised code allows egg farmers to confine millions of hens to wire cages for nearly their entire lives. 

These poor animals can barely move around without stepping on or climbing over other hens. Denied nearly everything that comes naturally to them, including perching, nesting, and dustbathing, they never get to see the sun, breathe fresh air, or feel the grass beneath their feet.

The European Union and a number of U.S. states have outright banned or severely restricted the cruel practice of caging egg laying hens. In Canada, nearly every major food retailer and manufacturer has pledged to switch to cage-free eggs.

In addition to ignoring serious animal welfare problems, the revised code flies in the face of consumer preferences. A recent survey conducted by NRG Research Group found the overwhelming majority of Canadians oppose the practice of confining egg-laying hens in cages. The survey shows that 79 percent of Canadians believe NFACC should prohibit the use of cages in egg production, and 83 percent of Canadians believe the government should enact laws banning their use. Eighty-one percent of Canadians feel that cages should be prohibited even if it increases the price of eggs. Strikingly, a majority of Canadians believe that NFACC should not receive any more taxpayer funding if it fails to recommend a transition to cage-free egg production. 

Now is the time to make your voice heard!

Please, take a moment to sign this petition urging NFACC—which receives millions of taxpayer dollars to develop codes of practice for the care and housing of farmed animals—to listen to consumers and advise egg farmers to stop using cages when it releases the final version of the code following the public comment period.