This petition calls for Newcastle University to stop buying and selling caged hens eggs in all of their student accommodation shops. Newcastle University should not support businesses that are happy to profit from such cruel practices.

The space allocation caged hens is less than the size of a piece of A4 paper and cages are only 40 cm high. Small cages mean hens are unable to stretch out, flap their wings or exercise properly. These birds spend their time continually standing on sloping wire floors designed to facilitate egg collection; many experience chronic pain from the development of lesions and other foot problems.

Scientific studies indicate that battery hens suffer intensely and continuously all the time they are confined in cages. Restricted movement, constant exposure to a wire floor and lack of perches lead to serious bone and muscle weakness.

Hens cannot express normal behaviours such as wing flapping, scratching, dust bathing, perching and foraging.

Caged hens cannot have a normal 'personal space' so they cannot escape aggression from other hens.

Cages have no nesting area — nesting before and during egg laying is a priority for hens and this deficiency really frustrates them.