Ending the ‘Cage Age’ in Europe, feathers to fly in court battle [Advocacy Lab Content]

Europe’s citizens called for an end to the ‘cage age’ with the phasing-out of cages and crates for farm animals. The European Commission agreed, committing to a legislative proposal by the end of 2023, but by October campaigners were outfoxed and more consultation with farmers was required.

The Commission’s volte-face was met with legal action when the ‘End the Cage Age’ ECI Committee, led by the NGO Compassion in World Farming, took their case to the European Court of Justice of the European Union.

Humane Society International Europe (HSI/Europe) has also expressed its disappointment in the Commission’s U-turn, not only on account of the welfare of 380 million laying hens in the EU, but they also argue the Commission was ignoring citizens, and the opportunity to unite member states on the issue.

Since 2012, battery cages have been banned in Europe and they were replaced with enriched cages where ‘laying hens have at least 750 cm² of cage area per hen’ or alternative systems where ‘laying hens can move freely with a stocking density not exceeding 9 laying hens per m² of usable area’ – as stipulated by the EU laying hens directive.

While enriched cages are more spacious than battery cages, animal rights groups and laying hen experts believe that they’re not fit for purpose and impede the normal behaviours of hens. They now call for the removal of the enriched cage systems.

“If you look at individual EU member states, there are countries like Austria and Luxembourg that already have their own legislation, on top of the EU legislation – the use of cages in these countries is already no longer allowed,” explains Ruud Tombrock, executive director HSI/Europe.

“Countries like Germany and Sweden have reached a point where less than 10% of their egg production uses enriched cages, Denmark has already managed to go entirely cage-free  – but in other countries like Poland, a big egg producing country, or Spain, the number of birds in cages is much higher, between 60% to 90% of laying hens are still in cages.”

“This shows there is no level-playing field and we think that it would be in everyone’s interests to address this and to create that level-playing field for the whole of the European Union,” he said.

The HSI said it appreciates that the removal of cage systems is not an overnight solution, and it will take time, resources and upheaval, greater than when battery cages were banned. They are supporting a “phase-out of systems to allow farmers to make these changes incrementally”.

Hen welfare

Bas Rodenburg, a professor of animal welfare at Utrecht University, has worked for 25 years in the field of animal behaviour and animal welfare. His recommendations for the ideal environment for laying hens are giving them access to foraging, dust bathing, perching, nesting, scratching and pecking in an environment rich with litter, some roughage and space to walk around.

“I think keeping the animals in a more stimulating environment also allows them to perform better, to function better, they’re able to adapt to their environment, so they feel better, they’re healthier,” he said.

“I think we also have a duty as a society to make sure that our animal production systems meet the needs of the animals – the furnished [enriched] cages are still not meeting the needs of the birds.”

He spent time in the member states as part of the Commission’s best practice hens project, showing farmers the potential to change from cage to cage-free systems.

“We see that managing large flocks of hens in large open housing systems is more difficult than managing caged house systems, but we also see that once the farmers get experience, they are well able to manage birds in these systems,” said Rodenburg.

Consumer demand

According to Miguel Ángel Higuera, President of the Copa-Cogeca Animal Health and Welfare Working Group, egg producers are open to the conversation of improving the conditions for laying hens.

The labelling systems on eggs in the EU quite clearly show consumers how their eggs were produced, whether they are organic, free-range or in enriched cages. The question is if consumers are prepared to spend the few extra cents required to produce eggs in a cage-free environment.

The import market is also a concern for producers.

Higuera says the only possibility to have a happy ending is if Europe enforces import producer compliance with the same specifications that European producers must abide by. “All these fantastic ideas that we have to improve the animal welfare are going to be destroyed by the international market,” he said.

“We have to be in balance, to work together on the cost of production, the investment for farmers, the willingness of the consumer to pay for this product and also with the imported products,” he adds,

Switching systems

Ruud Zanders, co-founder of Kipster Farm in The Netherlands made the switch to an open barn system. Legacy poultry and egg producers the family had an empire of hens spread across Poland, Germany and The Netherlands with 8 million in poultry numbers – one million of those laying hens.

Zanders saw the business go through change with bankruptcy in 2007 and the battery cage ban. Now it has three barns in The Netherlands and four in the US. The cage-free barns each have 24,000 birds, clucking up six and a half million eggs a year from one barn.

The move to cage-free barns, complete with a large indoor natural light garden and outdoor space was a reckoning.

Aware that reducing the cost of the egg meant ‘something else has to pay the price ‘maybe the biodiversity, maybe the climate, maybe the animal itself’, a complete overhaul of his way of thinking led to happy hens.

“I want to give them the best life we can imagine, in a commercial way. And yes, if we can do it, why not other poultry farmers?” he adds.

‘Will we see the Commission lay out a new proposal for the removal of enriched cages in the production of eggs?’ Asked Euractiv. “I’m not counting any chickens right now, but it remains to be seen what the next Commission will do,” said Jo Swabe Senior Director of Public Affairs at HIS/Europe.

[By Fiona Alston I Edited by Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]

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