Battery Hens

Across Australia, up to 12 million ‘battery’ hens are imprisoned in small cages to provide consumers with cheap eggs. The majority of these tortured birds are found right here in New South Wales.  

A hen in a battery cage lives a life of utter misery. A hell on earth. She can barely move, her claws wrapped around a wire cage, she will spend her entire life with no more space than an A4 piece of paper. And when she is no longer ‘productive’ she will be killed.

The Australian public has repeatedly supported our call to end battery cages. Yet the cruelty continues with the major parties more interested in supporting animal agribusinesses than the will of the people and the welfare of animals.

Both Labor and the Liberal-National party have decided to ignore community concern and all expert evidence from welfare professionals by supporting the cruel battery cage egg industry. Just when we thought the end might be in sight we were confronted with the absolutely woeful government response to the Poultry standards review. 

After seven long years, the review recommended a 14-year phase out. This is disgraceful and entirely out of step with the public’s wishes and the rest of the world. 

A 2036 phase out means that 55 million individual hens will be confined to cages – and why? Because an industry that is driven by profit and greed has more influence over the major parties than ordinary citizens do.

This is not good enough.

Our Plan

• Rapid phase out of battery hen cages
• Free range only chickens – not hens stuffed into glorified battery cages (“furnished cages”) 
• Transition to sustainable plant-based agriculture
• Support and a just transition for farmers (not agribusinesses)