Hens

Hens deserve kindness, compassion and the freedom to live a life worth living. Hens are intelligent, curious and socially complex animals with natural behavioural needs. In a natural outdoor environment, a hen will spend her day scratching at the ground, searching for food, dust bathing, stretching her wings and basking in the sun.

In New Zealand, over 1.2 million commercially farmed hens are kept in cramped cages to produce eggs. These intensive farming conditions prevent hens from expressing their most basic behaviours, which can cause hens to experience a range serious welfare issues.

Colony cages are in direct breach of the Animal Welfare Act 1999, which states an animal must have the opportunity to display normal patterns of behaviour. 

We are seeing incredible change for hens across New Zealand. Kiwis want to see hens free from cages and the major egg purchasers are listening. All supermarkets across the country are committed to phasing out the sale of eggs from caged hens. The country’s leading foodservice groups, café outlets and restaurant chains have also pledged to stop selling cage eggs.

Together, we can change this and create an Aotearoa where hens are treated as individuals and not products.