Activists from the UK’s leading vegan campaigning charity, Viva!, are calling on the public to respond to a government consultation on keeping egg-laying hens in cages, as undercover footage reveals the “miserable reality” still endured by millions of the caged birds, which supply around 17 per cent of the UK’s eggs.
“What we witnessed at Heal Farms was nothing short of hell for hens: row after row of birds crammed into metal cages, denied freedom, peace and everything that makes life worth living,” says Juliet Gellatley, the founder and director of Viva! and one of the investigators who entered the farm. “Even worse is the fact that over seven million caged hens across the UK are still trapped in those same miserable conditions. So-called enriched ‘colony’ cages are just cruelty rebranded; the egg industry simply swapped one form of hell for another. We wouldn’t dream of forcing our dogs or cats to live a life of such unnatural deprivation, so it’s heartbreaking that this continues to be the miserable reality for millions of these beautiful, intelligent animals.”
Under current proposals, keeping laying hens in cages will not be banned until 2030 at the earliest, though the Government’s preferred timeline – and the one most likely to be enshrined in law – will see the production method remain legal until 2032, condemning tens of millions more hens to a life of suffering.
Enriched colony cages – a life of deprivation
Viva! Campaigns investigators entered a caged egg facility at Heal Farms in Shropshire in May 2023 and December 2025. During both investigations, video footage captured inside the building, which houses thousands of hens, shows dozens of individuals living inside each cramped and dirty cage. The cages are stacked in rows soaring seven levels high, making it all but impossible for the investigators to check on the condition of the hens in the upper levels. Investigators reported on both occasions that the thick cobwebs and dust inside the building, combined with the cloying stench of ammonia from the birds’ droppings, made breathing difficult.
When not perching on plastic/metal bars, the caged hens are forced to stand and walk on bare wire, which can cause painful foot conditions. Many of the birds in the footage are also suffering from feather loss – an indication of stress and/or poor health – overgrown claws and deformed beaks. The latter is caused by the painful trimming carried out to prevent stress-induced injurious pecking, which is common in such crowded cages.
In December, investigators filmed the decaying corpse of a bird left slumped across a perch, just inches away from food and water sources. Space inside the cage is so limited that other birds are seen perching on the corpse – and even pecking at the body, a behaviour that can lead to cannibalism and raises serious concerns about disease transmission risks.
Enriched ‘colony’ cages replaced barren ‘battery’ cages in the UK in 2012 and were supposed to provide hens with a better quality of life. However, under current laws, each hen is given just 750cm2 of space – roughly equivalent to only a postcard’s worth of additional space versus a battery cage, which provided less than an A4 piece of paper’s worth of space – and extreme stocking densities, combined with competition for resources, leave many hens unable to access the small ‘enrichment’ areas. The hens live under artificial lighting their entire lives and are largely denied the ability to express normal behaviours such as walking and running, wing stretching, flapping and flying, dust bathing and scratching through substrate in search of food.
Heal Farms – Caged – IMG_3700
Undercover investigators from Viva! Campaigns found thousands of hens in dirty cages stacked
seven tiers high, inside a Heal Farms building covered in dust and cobwebs. (Credit: Viva! Campaigns)
The freedom to express normal behaviour is one of the Five Freedoms developed by the Government’s Farm Animal Welfare Committee (now known as the Animal Welfare Committee), which covers the welfare of laying hens and pullets (young hens that have not yet begun to lay eggs).
Campaigners voice concerns over proposed timelines for cage phase-out
Viva!, which has been campaigning for an end to factory farming for 31 years, is hoping its investigation will add to the pressure facing the Labour Government to follow through on its promise to phase out enrichment cages as part of its Animal Welfare Strategy for England, having admitted that enriched ‘colony’ cages “still do not fully provide for the physical and behavioural needs of laying hens”. Any ban will depend on the outcome of a recently launched consultation.
While the Government’s preferred proposal is a 2027 ban on the installation of new enriched ‘colony’ cages and any other caged systems, followed by a blanket ban from 2032, other proposals leave scope for cages to still be in use over a decade from now. Viva! argues that even 2032 is too far away and is urging the Government to bring this timeline forward, highlighting that tens of millions more hens will experience lives filled with misery and suffering over the next six years.
Crucially, all proposed timelines for an outright ban fall beyond the date of the 2029 general election, leaving animal welfare campaigners concerned that other political parties may not uphold Labour’s pledge.
The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 9 March 2026. Viva! is urging all members of the public to read through the consultation and submit a personal response calling for enriched ‘colony’ cages to be banned as soon as possible. A new petition, meanwhile, calls on the Government to make it’s promise to ban cages a legally binding commitment, regardless of the outcome of the next general election. Readers can sign the petition here.
“While the Government’s intention to phase out cages is obviously good news, we feel it’s imperative to ensure that a ban is enforced on the shortest possible timescale,” says Gellatley. “Given that most hens are gassed to death at approximately 18 months of age and new birds are brought in to replace them, the proposed 2032 date still condemns tens of millions more hens to unnatural, unhappy lives spent crammed inside filthy cages. If countries like Austria and Luxembourg have already banned cages, surely we can bring forward the proposed dates and live up to our reputation as a nation of animal lovers.”
