In 2026, Juliet Gellatley, Founder and Director of Viva! and her son Jazz are uncovering the truth behind the myths that abound in the egg industry; from the idea that cages were banned a long time ago to the images conjured up by the clever marketing term ‘free range’.
The need for this campaign has never been so urgent. The UK government has proposed a plan to abolish cages entirely and we need your help to make this a reality. Watch as Juliet and Jazz go undercover on three different farms and find out how you can help.
EGGS – NOT ALL THEY’RE CRACKED UP TO BE
Around 14.5 billion eggs are eaten in Britain annually. That’s approximately 40 million eggs every single day. This demand is driving an industry that relies on the exploitation of 43 million hens in the UK alone.
The laying hen is possibly the most abused animal on earth, forced to produce eggs day after day in conditions that should shame our country. More than 7 million are confined in cages, while over 30 million are trapped on so-called free range farms. Millions more spend their entire lives inside a crowded barn system without ever seeing daylight.
Regardless of the type of farming practices inflicted on hens, they are forced to lay 20 to 30 times more eggs than they would naturally produce in the wild, achieved by manipulating their environment, selective breeding and genomics.
It’s also common practice in the UK to trim the beaks of one-day-old chicks to supposedly alleviate the potential for birds to feather peck fellow inmates but as our investigators witnessed firsthand, many hens are still subjected to painful feather pecking.
Our findings reveal that, no matter how they are farmed, hens lead a desperately miserable life.
BAN THE CAGE
In 2012, the infamous battery cage was banned but it was merely replaced by the ‘enriched’ colony cage. There’s nothing enriching about these cages, which imprison between 40 to 80 hens, with each given a meagre 750cm² of space. This is just a bit bigger than an A4 piece of paper.
The UK government opened a public consultation in early 2026 to phase out ALL CAGES for laying hens by 2032. This is certainly a step in the right direction but a proposal is not a guarantee. Until a full ban is written into law, millions of hens will remain confined and future governments could water it down or scrap it altogether. We’re calling on Labour to legislate now and make a complete cage ban legally binding before the next general election and we need your help to apply pressure.
LIFE IS FAR FROM FREE FOR ‘FREE RANGE’ HENS
Scientific studies have shown that despite theoretical access to outdoor spaces, hens’ use of it varies greatly. Research carried out across 169 free-range and organic farms in Europe found that 77% of hens never left the house in large flocks of 24,000 birds or more. How can you ever be sure the eggs you eat come from one of those hens who made it outside?
If you’ve ever told yourself that no animal has to die for scrambled eggs or cake, the reality is very different. Laying hens are slaughtered at just 18 months old, even though their natural lifespan is up to eight years. This is because their egg laying productivity drops and they stop being economically profitable – discarded like an old machine.
Sadly, they’re not the only victims. The one thing you don’t need in the egg laying flock is males. An estimated 40 to 45 million one-day-old male chicks are killed in the UK each year by gassing, their little bodies often used as food for the pet industry and zoos – mostly for reptiles and birds of prey.
The only egg that doesn’t cause suffering is the one left off your plate. Check out our delicious egg-free recipes below.
We’ve got lots of egg-free recipes on the Vegan Recipe Club.
For all your protein needs, check out our V7 Protein Power Meal Plan.
Viva!’s vegan directory includes 1000’s of vegan-friendly places to eat, shop and stay!
For decades, Viva! has been exposing the inhumane realities of egg farming.
COMING SOON
Add you name to our petition to secure a ban on keeping hens in cages.
Help us sustain pressure on Labour to make a ban on cages legally binding.
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COMING SOON
