Bit of a Shocker: PETA Opposing Cage-Free Eggs, Issues White Paper on Consumers Misled into Paying Higher Prices While Birds Still Suffer

For Immediate Release:
February 19, 2026

Contact:
Sara Groves 202-483-7382

In a surprising turn of events that challenges widespread assumptions about food labels, PETA is publicly opposing so-called “cage-free” eggs after a new white paper released today reveals that conscientious consumers are paying higher prices for eggs labeled and marketed as a humane alternative to other egg production systems, unaware that “cage-free” systems do surprisingly little to improve hen welfare—and, in some cases, can even cause more suffering. The paper comprises peer-reviewed studies from leading academic journals, data and policy documents from federal agencies, insights from agricultural industry groups, and more.

Five Key Findings:

·        Feather pecking, fighting, and cannibalism are more common in cage-free systems due to frustrated hens being packed by the thousands in a barn and unable to escape other frustrated hens who bully them, and competing for resources, including food, water, and nests.

·        85–97% of cage-free hens suffer painful keel bone (sternum) fractures and impaired mobility from the strain of constant egg-laying and collisions or falls caused by overcrowding and stress.

·        With only between one and one and a half square feet of floor space per bird and tens of thousands of hens crammed together, the aggression and resource competition caused by confinement, combined with hens’ natural tendency to synchronize their behavior, often results in hens suffocating under one another (crowd crush).

·        Hens are more likely to suffer from chronic respiratory infections and skin lesions in “cage-free” systems due to litter soaked with feces burning their feet and legs, often causing infections, and ammonia-saturated dust burning their lungs and eyes, even leading to blindness.

·        As with traditional factory farming, the sensitive tips of chicks’ beaks are cut or burned off—a painful mutilation that makes it hard for them to eat, drink, and groom themselves—and chicks are hatched and raised without their mothers, which causes them to miss critical imprinting that helps them cope with fear and stress and results in lifelong trauma and behavioral problems.

Experts from a range of fields—including veterinary medicine, environmental advocacy, ethics, and animal welfare,—have endorsed the paper (all of the endorsements are available here). Dr. John Sanbonmatsu, Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and author of The Omnivore’s Deception: What We Get Wrong about Meat, Animals, and Ourselves, calls the study “[d]evastating.” He writes, “In stunning and meticulous detail, this report demolishes once and for all the myth that raising hens in ‘cage-free’ environments offers ethically meaningful advantages over other forms of confinement.” 

Otto Brockway, director of the documentary Eating Our Way to Extinction, writes, “If you think buying cage-free eggs means ‘happy hens,’ you need to read this report. … It’s time to move past this broken system and switch to plant-based options that are actually kind to animals.” 

“There is simply no good way of supplying people with eggs: the welfare and environmental impacts are enormous, however the chickens are housed,” says George Monbiot, journalist and author of Regenesis: Feeding the World Without Devouring the Planet. “As this crucial report shows, we just need to stop.” 

PETA, which commissioned the study, has advice for shoppers who are trying to avoid supporting cruelty to animals via their shopping choices: The only humane solution is moving to vegan egg options such as Just Egg and Yo Egg, or avoiding eating eggs altogether as they are too cholesterol-heavy to be part of a healthy diet, and buying commercially produced eggs supports factory farming.

“Hens in deceptively named ‘cage-free’ facilities can suffocate under the weight of others crammed into sheds with them, and suffer from painful beak mutilations, respiratory infections, and more while the egg industry profits from consumer confusion and higher prices,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “These carefully crafted marketing tactics keep birds suffering on factory farms and keep people buying eggs they would otherwise avoid in favor of vegan options—the only truly humane foods.”

PETA notes that eggs are high in cholesterol and saturated fat, which have been linked to heart disease and other serious health conditions, and there are delicious vegan egg options widely available, including Just Egg. The global vegan egg market reached $1.5 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $4.5 billion by 2030. PETA’s free vegan starter kit is filled with tips to help anyone looking to make the switch.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.