Battery Cages

Battery Cages 

Caged egg laying hens are among the most intensively confined animals in farming. More than five million hens are confined in conventional battery cages every day in Australia, denied the ability to even flap their wings. 

It’s time to #CanTheCage 

Australia is in the dark ages when it comes to keeping layer hens in cages. More than 75% of OECD countries have phased out battery cages or are in the process of doing so. Australia still allows them and as a result, millions of hens suffer.  

In a small wire battery cage each hen has only the space of about an A4 piece of paper. They are confined to these cramped, dark quarters 24/7—with no room to flap their wings, no sunlight and no place to perch – for their entire lives.   

Big players in the Australian egg industry are lobbying hard to keep these ‘conventional’ cages even as a growing number of countries and food companies have moved on and left this cruelty in the past. 

What Humane World is doing 

Our Humane World for Animals global team have been working to secure cage free policies from governments and food companies all over the world. More than 300 companies have already pledged to require better layer hen welfare including two of the world’s largest food service providers, Compass Group and Sodexo.   

In Australia, Humane World is calling for an end to battery cages, a reduction in stocking densities and a reclassification of the rules for the ‘free range’ egg label to be more in line with consumer expectations and international standards. This is the bare minimum our hens deserve. Battery cages have no place in modern farming.   

The federal government convened an independent expert panel that recommended battery cages be phased out, and in July 2023 new national Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for Poultry were endorsed by all states and territories. But for that to take effect, now each state government must commit to a date to actually #CantheCage in their state. This is long overdue, and we cannot allow cages to confine millions of Australian hens for decades to come. We must outlaw these awful cages as soon as possible.  

What you can do 

1. Use your voice to speak up for hens! Sign our petition to politicians asking them to implement the phase out in their state to #CantheCage.  
2. Reduce eggs in your diet. Our blog on ways to reduce animal product intake has different egg substitutes you can try for cooking and baking.   
3. If you buy eggs, choose only free range eggs with stocking densities no higher than 1,500 hens per hectare.