It’s a Lie: ‘Cage-Free’ is Not Cruelty-Free!
PETA Exposes a Meat-Industry Scam
It’s a lie – and a filthy lie at that. You’ve seen, but hopefully have never been tempted by, those egg cartons that show grassy fields and smiling hens, sometimes in a child’s arms. Well, PETA’s new white paper breaks that bucolic illusion wide open. Producers’ “cage-free” claim is a carefully crafted marketing ploy designed to mask misery. Taking a peek into industry reports, independent studies, and government documents, PETA has confirmed what multiple investigations have revealed: Hens suffer immensely on “cage-free” farms, and no one gets out alive.
‘Cage-Free’ Is a Factory Farm Scheme
PETA’s white paper reveals that nearly all “cage-free” housing consists of windowless, ammonia-filled warehouses in which thousands of birds – each a sensitive individual – must jockey for enough space to stand on a waste-soaked floor or crowded perch. It’s really one big cage! Like hens in small cages, the ends of their sensitive beaks are still sliced off; they still endure uterine prolapses, egg impaction, and tissue damage; and they still sustain broken bones from being forced to produce an unnatural amount of eggshells that deplete their bodies of calcium. They, too, are hauled out by their legs, are slammed into crates, endure a petrifying journey in all weather conditions to slaughter, and are hung upside down – and their throats are slit. It’s extreme cruelty, and it’s being covered up so that kind consumers will not realize what they’re paying for.
“Cage-free” systems deny birds the opportunity to express their inherent needs to meaningfully stretch and preen their wings, to roost, scratch, forage, dust-bathe, and form a social structure, a flock. Injuries are frequent as weakened chickens crash while trying to fly and chronically deprived, stressed hens attack each other out of frustration. Between 85% and 97% of cage-free hens have broken bones. Others are smothered when panicked chickens crowd together (known as “piling”). Floors caked with dust, urine, and feces cause painful skin conditions, severe pulmonary lesions, and even blindness. Diseases spread rapidly, including deadly bird flu.
PETA investigators have witnessed the egg industry’s lies up close. For example, at a farm that supplies Nellie’s Free Range Eggs, which are “certified humane,” PETA found 20,000 hens packed so tightly that many couldn’t lift a wing without bumping into another hen. Their beaks had been mutilated, their feathers were missing, and they were sent to slaughter when their bodies wore out at just 13 months. PETA Foundation lawyers sued Nellie’s on behalf of consumers who had been misled by the brand’s false advertising. We won an important legal precedent, but Nellie’s is still on the market, and hens still suffer on its factory farms.
PETA Foundation lawyers also helped file suit against Vital Farms, which claims that chickens are “pasture raised” yet keeps them in deplorable conditions. While that case was ongoing, a judge imposed sanctions on Vital Farms, forcing it to pay PETA and the PETA Foundation $292,000 for “particularly ugly” legal tactics. And additional lawsuits challenging these egg industry claims have been filed by other plaintiffs.
What YOU Can Do
Find your favorites vegan eggs and egg replacements for baking, and share them with friends and family. Read and share PETA’s white paper.
The Sunny Upside: Vegan Eggs are Everywhere
It’s no yolk: Every chicken egg is loaded with saturated fat and double the cholesterol of a Big Mac. But heart-healthy vegan options abound, including WunderEggs Plant-Based Boiled Eggs, Hodo All-Day Egg Scramble, BeLeaf Vegan Fried Egg, and Yo Egg, a spot-on selection down to the runny yolk.
You can even find them flying around! After an appeal from PETA, American Airlines started offering a vegan egg scramble made with Just Egg on selected flights.
