Charities unite against Farmfoods’ caged-hen cruelty, as Government pushes for ban
Tim Ridgway
Four top UK animal charities have sent a joint letter to supermarket Farmfoods, blasting them for reneging on their commitment to end cages by 2025 and urging them to reconsider as the Government pursues a national ban on cages.
Farmfoods is the only major retailer not committed in any way to getting rid of cages for laying hens.
The open letter is addressed to Farmfoods' Managing Director George Herd, and signed by The Humane League UK, Compassion in World Farming, Open Cages, and the RSPCA.
It follows months of attempted dialogue from these groups, while Farmfoods enters 2026 as the last major UK retailer with no plans to stop selling eggs from caged hens. Many of its competitors, including Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, M&S and Waitrose, are already 100% cage-free for store bought eggs. With the Government’s announcement that cages for hens will be banned, Farmfoods is clinging onto a cruel and dying industry.
Sean Gifford, Managing Director at The Humane League UK, said: “It is shocking that we’re in a new year and Farmfoods are clinging to the same viciously cruel cages that most of the country has abandoned. It has now been a decade since they promised to ditch cages, so together with our fellow animal charities we are highlighting just how far behind Farmfoods has fallen - failing to move with the times, with the industry, the Government, and its own customers. Hens deserve so much better than Farmfoods’ tired excuses.”
This open letter coincides with the commencement of a fresh season of protests led by The Humane League UK, who demonstrated outside a store in Bristol on Monday, discussing Farmfoods’ animal welfare with customers.
An ad-van calling out their use of cages was also sent to a Farmfoods in Birmingham, next to the supermarket’s central office.
The Humane League UK led a 2016 campaign which led to Farmfoods making a cage-free commitment, before the company quietly dropped their pledge. The Humane League UK also launched a petition in response to this betrayal of animal welfare standards, which has accumulated over 50,000 signatures.
Keeping hens in cages prevents them from performing key instinctual behaviours such as dust-bathing and wing-flapping. This creates intense stress for the birds, as well as weakening their bones. Tens of thousands of hens will remain in cages because of Farmfoods’ reversal.
Farmfoods stated they scrapped their commitment because they were “unwilling to deny customers access to the good value, nutritious food provided by eggs laid by caged hens.”
But the charities' open letter argues that "socio-economic status should not be the limiting factor for a customer’s ability to purchase higher welfare products”, particularly when budget retailers like Aldi are already 100% cage free for whole eggs.
With 83% of the industry now cage-free, Farmfoods' additional argument, that there’s a lack of supply, has been thoroughly debunked.
An overwhelming 94% of the UK public oppose the use of cages for laying hens and a recent poll from Compassion in World Farming found that 67% of Britons are willing to pay more for cage-free eggs.
Farmfoods take £1 billion in revenue each year, which The Humane League UK argues must be invested into getting hens out of cages.
