Joanna Lumley heads CIWF campaign
 

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Joanna Lumley & compassionate farming


62% of British hens still being kept in cruelty

Joanna Lumley has described her outrage at how the use of hens in battery cages still dominates the UK egg production market. The actress was speaking out on the eve of the charity Compassion in World Farming's Good Egg Awards, which she is hosting.

62% of the UK's 27 million egg-laying hens are still kept in battery cages, ranking the UK fifth in a European league table. Battery cages are small wire cages which provide each hen with a space no bigger than an A4 sheet of paper and prohibit many natural behaviours.

Ms Lumley, a patron of the charity, says: "Battery cages are an outrage. But we can all help to consign them to the scrapbook of history. Let's all commit to buying only free range eggs."

Despite the growing consumer trend for free-range eggs, the vast majority of eggs used as an ingredient in cakes, mayonnaise, quiche, and ready meals are from battery caged hens.

The Good Egg Awards were set up last year by Compassion in World Farming to celebrate companies ditching the battery cage egg in favour of eggs from free-range or barn kept hens. Cadbury Creme Egg, Hellmann's and The National Trust are among the UK's leading brands to be named "Good Eggs" at tomorrow's ceremony.

"The Good Egg Award winners are abandoning eggs from battery cages in all sorts of products. From cakes to confectionary to mayonnaise, consumers looking for ethical eggs will finally be able to make that choice," says Ms Lumley.

The award winners will effectively release over 10 million hens from cages, double the number released by Good Egg Award winners' commitments last year.

As the UK's largest supermarket Tesco will receive the 2008 Rotten Egg Award for failing to make a commitment to rid their shelves of battery cage eggs. Tesco would free an estimated 1.3 million birds from cages each year if it moved to selling only barn and free-range eggs.

Chief Executive of Compassion in World Farming, Philip Lymbery argued that "consumers no longer want to eat food that has been produced in cruel systems. Today's awards make it clear that the food business is turning its back on battery cages but producers and food companies who've yet to ditch the cage need to wake up and act now."

For more information visit www.ciwf.org.uk


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