ABSTRACT
Although the majority of the world’s laying hens are still housed in conventional (‘battery’) cages, public concern for the welfare of laying hens is rapidly changing the methods by which eggs are being produced and marketed in many regions of the world. These changes began in a few individual European countries during the 1980s and culminated in the passing of the EU Council Directive 99/74 for laying hens, which now prohibits the use of non-enriched cage systems in all EU countries since January 2012 (Appleby, 2004). There is currently no federal legislation in the United States, but several individual states have passed laws that essentially ban conventional cages (Mench et al., 2011). In New Zealand, conventional cages are due to be phased out by 2022 under the Code of Welfare for Laying Hens, and in February 2016, Egg Farmers of Canada announced that no new conventional cage systems are to be installed after July 2016. Additionally, numerous food labelling and certification schemes have been developed for the purpose of marketing speciality ‘animal welfare-friendly’ eggs to ethically conscious consumers around the world. In North America, food processers, supermarkets and restaurant chains are driving massive changes by requiring that egg suppliers adopt housing systems that animal protection groups or consumers consider to be acceptable for animal welfare (Mench et al., 2011). In 2015 and early 2016, an unprecedented number of restaurants, grocers and distributors made pledges to purchase eggs only from non-cage systems, which will require new housing for over 150 million hens in the United States and Canada by 2026.
