Hope in Sight for Battery Hens

For the 11 million hens still confined in battery cages in Australia hope is finally in sight. The recent announcement by Woolworths that it would reduce its product lines of caged eggs represents the first shift by a major retailer away from supporting factory-farmed products, and importantly, reflects growing consumer awareness of the lives endured by hens in battery cages...

Whilst the battery cage will be banned from 2012 in the EU, no phase out date has been forecast for Australia. With political reviews failing to provide welfare advances for animals, Animals Australia's focus changed to lobbying retailers and educating consumers to use their purchasing power to demand an end to cruel practices.

Last year members of Animals Australia's Action Network wrote to Woolworths expressing their concerns about how hens and pigs were treated. Woolworths advised us that in response to letters received, they had established an animal welfare committee to review their livestock supplier standards – another great win for the Action Network!

Both Animals Australia and Animal Liberation NSW have presented evidence of the suffering endured by factory farmed animals to this committee; and called on Woolworths to improve their standards and phase out their lines of factory farmed products.

This subsequent decision by Woolworths to reduce its lines of caged eggs is welcomed as an important first step that will send a strong signal to caged egg producers that the end is nigh.

In further good news, McDonalds announced that it would be moving its Australian operation to only using free-range eggs. Our meetings with both Woolworths and McDonalds have revealed the growing significance that retailers are giving to meeting and addressing animal welfare concerns.

In the UK welfare reforms have been led by retailers. Two of Britain's biggest supermarkets no longer stock caged eggs and McDonalds, Subway and Starbucks in the UK use only free-range eggs.

The spotlight will now fall on Australia's other major retailer Coles to follow Woolworths' lead. Animals Australia continues to be involved in Woolworths' review of livestock welfare standards with the hope that further advances will be agreed to by this influential retailer.