Crammed together in the dark with their beaks cut off, 14million hens languish in cages across the UK.
After hearing horror stories of these cruel living conditions, six in 10 of us are now buying free-range eggs.
Cages severely distress hens, frustrating their ability to perform innate behaviours such as wing-flapping, dust-bathing, stretching, foraging, perching and nesting.
Part of their beaks are also removed to stop them pecking out feathers.
All major retailers and food companies have either stopped selling eggs from caged hens or have promised to do so by the end of 2025.
But thousands of smaller retailers, restaurants, takeaways and food manufacturers still use cage eggs and have no plans to phase them out.
Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder has thrown his support behind a campaign led by The Humane League to ban cages for hens, comparing the conditions to “concentration camps”.
The 59-year-old took in four caged hens last year at his home in Salford: Edna, Mabel, Daisy and Flo. They were saved from slaughter by Wigan charity Lucky Hens.
Shaun said: “It is a terrible life. No feathers, totally in shock and kept in the dark for long periods. It is like they have been kept in a Nazi concentration camp.”
He urged the Government to “intervene to ensure no more chickens have to suffer their lives away in cages”.
Shaun and wife Joanne said the hens came to them with no feathers but after a few months recovered and “follow them around everywhere”.
Animal welfare group The Humane League estimated that between 4.2 million and 8.4 million hens – 10-20% of the UK total – could still be in cages after 2025.
The EU is aiming to cement legislation that would ban cages for hens, as well as other farmed animals such as pigs, rabbits, ducks and geese, by 2027.
Cordelia Britton, from The Humane League UK, said: “This government gained power on a raft of progressive animal-welfare policies, and promised not to fall behind the EU. It vowed to “examine” the issue a year ago, and has done nothing since.
“Hens in cages, and the concerned public, need something concrete – the Government needs to announce a consultation on this topic or risk breaching their trust.”
