More victories leading to the end of the cage age for farm animals

By on September 21, 2021 with 7 Comments

For years, we at the Humane Society family of organizations have waged campaigns—through the boardroom to the ballot box—to eliminate the abusive practices of locking egg-laying hens in cages and mother pigs in gestation crates, practices that cause immense suffering for a staggering number of animals in agriculture. And we’ve made great progress. In fact, our high-profile legislative victories, such as California’s Proposition 12 and Massachusetts’ Question 3, have received a lot of media attention recently, with industrial farmers’ trade groups failing to strike down Proposition 12 in three separate lawsuits.

A necessary and core component to abolishing cages is also our success moving dozens of major food companies to publicly commit that they’ll eliminate them from their supply chains over time. But making a promise and keeping a promise are two very different things. That’s why today, we’re so focused on holding companies accountable to their pledges.

And our efforts are paying off. In just the last three months, major corporations have been accelerating their progress away from some of the cruelest practices in agribusiness.

This is the exact type of progress we need for farm animals—progress where companies are actually switching more and more products over to cage-free, rather than simply making promises to do so at some later date. These welcome commitments also serve as a strong foundation on which to build in other markets where Humane Society International is working closely with food companies and their international affiliates to promote the adoption and implementation of similar policies.

Hens confined in wire battery cages don’t even have enough room to be able to spread their wings. Alamy Stock Photo

That said, as positive as these developments are, there is much more to be done. Of particular concern right now are the many commitments companies have made which don’t seem to be moving forward. For example:

  • Cracker Barrel pledged to switch to 100% cage-free eggs but has not shown any progress toward that end. The company also seems to have done away with its promise to eliminate gestation crates from its pork supply.
  • Last year, Starbucks promised to release a timeline for eliminating gestation crates (after claiming for six years it was working toward that goal) but still has yet to do so.
  • Some grocery retailers—like Giant Eagle, Kroger and Albertsons—seem to lack any kind of tangible plans for keeping their cage-free egg promises.
  • Dine Brands—while making progress on its cage-free promise—has unfortunately done away with its pledge to eliminate gestation crates.
  • Brinker International (owner of Chili’s) has not shown any progress whatsoever toward keeping its promises about eliminating gestation crates and switching to 100% cage-free eggs.

Just as the list of companies that are making progress is long and robust, unfortunately, so too is the list of companies that are not. That’s why the Humane Society family of organizations is committed to both praising companies that are already on the road to eliminating cages while pushing others to get on the road. We owe that to you—our members and supporters—and to the animals.

Follow Kitty Block on Twitter @HSUSKittyBlock.

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Farm Animals

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7 Comments

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  1. Jeane Camargo da Silva says:

    Que Deus abençoe a todos os envolvidos nessa vitória para os animais!!

  2. Janet Zinner says:

    Thankyou so much for your work in helping farm animals!!!!!

  3. Lore says:

    We need to stop farming animals in the first place. Please advocate veganism.

  4. Donna says:

    Why has it taken this long to protect animals? What is wrong with people? Treat animals, people how you want to be treated. Is kindness loving, helping no longer important??? I hope there is a lot of love, kindness, empathy in this world that will come out that is long overdue.

  5. Devin Jane Buckley says:

    So great to have this information out there. Corporations are pressured by bad/good publicity. So let’s keep it up!

  6. Donna Stoppa says:

    thank you so much for all you do <3 <3 <3 no more cages!!!

  7. Erin Hansen says:

    I am thrilled and impressed by your hard work and perserverence. This is not easy work that you are doing and I admire your professionalism and your dedication. You know that real progress has been made, and we will continue until we win all battles, along with sister and like minded causes. Great work everyone!

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