A Missed Opportunity for Hens

Aotearoa had a chance to improve hens’ lives. Instead, we’re preserving factory farming.

The Government is reviewing the Code of Welfare for Layer Hens in response to the growing threat of bird flu in New Zealand.

Codes of Welfare set the minimum standards for how farmed animals are treated. Reviews like this are a rare opportunity to ensure those standards actually reflect current science and public expectations.

This review should have been an opportunity to begin moving beyond factory farming. Instead, the proposed changes preserve the systems that cause the greatest harm to hens.

As a result, millions of hens will remain confined in overcrowded sheds and colony cages, unable to feel grass beneath their feet, dustbathe in the soil, or bask in the sun.

Factory farming isn’t inevitable. It’s a choice.

This consultation is a chance to tell the Government that New Zealand can choose a different future for hens.

The review misses the bigger picture

The proposed changes focus on how factory farming should operate, rather than asking whether factory farming should continue at all.

While there are some minor technical changes, the proposal does not:

provide a pathway to phase out colony cages;
reduce overcrowding;
address the inherent welfare harms of intensive confinement; or
recognise that factory farming itself creates many of the problems these rules are trying to manage.

Instead of using this review to improve the lives of hens, it largely preserves the status quo.

Bird flu exposes the problem, not the solution.

One reason for reviewing the Code is the growing threat of bird flu.

Rather than justifying more confinement, bird flu highlights one of the fundamental weaknesses of factory farming.

Housing tens of thousands of birds together in enclosed sheds creates ideal conditions for disease to spread once it enters a flock.

The answer isn’t to make factory farming more resilient. It’s to build a food system that no longer depends on it.

Around the world, governments are beginning to move away from cages and other intensive farming systems. Aotearoa should be doing the same.

What SAFE is calling for

SAFE believes this review should have been the first step towards ending New Zealand’s reliance on factory farming, beginning with the phase-out of colony cages.

We want to see:

a clear pathway to phase out colony cages;
stronger welfare standards that reflect modern science and public expectations; and
an animal welfare framework that supports the transition away from factory farming.

Hens deserve more than a lifetime inside sheds and cages.

They deserve a future free from factory farming.

Make your Submission

This is one of the few opportunities the public has to influence the minimum standards that affect millions of hens. The decisions made now will shape their lives for years to come.

You don’t need to be an expert. The most powerful submissions are respectful, written in your own words, and explain why you believe New Zealand should do better.

Submissions close 5pm, 14 August 2026.

This is a template to help you get started. We encourage you to personalise it by sharing why this issue matters to you. Feel free to add, remove, or edit anything below. Alternatively, you can complete your submission through the Ministry for Primary Industries website here.

Name(Required)

First Last

Your Email(Required)

Email Subject(Required)

You can leave the default subject line below OR add your own.

Your Submission(Required)

You can leave the default submission template below, or write your own submission. These will be sent directly to [email protected]

Kia ora,

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed Code of Welfare for Layer Hens.

While I support efforts to improve animal welfare, I do not believe the proposed changes go far enough to protect hens from unnecessary suffering.

This review was an important opportunity to strengthen New Zealand’s animal welfare standards and begin addressing the systemic welfare problems associated with factory farming. Instead, the proposed changes leave many of the practices that cause the greatest harm unchanged.

I urge MPI and NAWAC to strengthen the Code by:

developing a clear pathway to phase out colony cages;

reducing stocking densities in all housing systems so hens have more space to move and express natural behaviours;

ending routine painful practices, including beak trimming, by addressing the conditions that make these procedures commonplace;

developing a plan to end the routine killing of male chicks; and

ensuring the Code reflects current scientific understanding of hens’ behavioural and welfare needs.

The European Union has recently committed to phasing out cages and is progressing broader reforms to improve the welfare of farmed animals. New Zealand should not fall behind international best practice. This review should begin moving our animal welfare framework in the same direction.

Hens are sentient animals with complex behavioural needs. They deserve more than a lifetime of confinement in systems designed to maximise production at the expense of their welfare.

I encourage MPI and NAWAC to adopt a Code that provides a genuine pathway towards ending the most intensive forms of confinement and reflects the expectations of New Zealanders who want stronger protections for animals.

Thank you for considering my submission.

Ngā mihi,

Will you help us end Factory Farming in Aotearoa?

We are getting ready to launch one of our biggest ever public awareness campaigns that will expose some of the cruellest farming systems in New Zealand that impact at least 123 million animals. We can only pull this off with your help! Please donate today to support the launch of this massive new campaign.

BACK THIS CAMPAIGN