1

Everything you need to know about eggs – how they’re produced, the chickens who lay

them and how eggs affect your health

By Veronika Powell MSc, Claire Palmer MSc and Tony Wardle £1.50

About Viva! Viva! campaigns for a vegan world.Most farmed animals spend their short andmiserable lives in the filth of factory farms and arekilled with sickening barbarity – we expose thisabuse through investigations and publicise it withnationwide campaigns that bring about change.Billions of animals are also killed at sea, causingimmense suffering and contributing to theecological collapse of our oceans. We addressthese issues too.

Viva! publishes the highly acclaimed Viva!lifemagazine and runs the online Vegan Recipe Clubwith hundreds of recipes illustrated in full colour.Packed with chef’s tips, hints and advice, you caneven search for recipes based solely on your favouriteingredients: www.veganrecipeclub.org.uk

Viva! provides all the information and supportnecessary to help people change their dietbecause the best way to protect animals is to stopeating them: www.viva.org.uk

About Viva!HealthViva!Health is a section of Viva! that monitorsscientific research linking diet to health andprovides accurate information on which to makeinformed choices about the food you eat.Viva!Health regularly communicates with thepublic, health professionals, schools and foodmanufacturers through campaigns, scientificreports, informative guides, fact sheets and more:www.vivahealth.org.uk

About CrackedViva!’s Cracked campaign pulls together thefindings of a year-long investigation into the life ofBritain’s laying hens. Our team of investigatorswent undercover in free range, organic andenriched cage farms across the country to showyou what life is really like for hens since the banon battery cages. What we found was a hopelesslycracked industry built on profit and exploitationthat causes pain and suffering to hens on analmost unimaginable scale:www.viva.org.uk/cracked

You see plenty of eggs when you go shopping butnot the chickens who lay them. According to theadverts, these hens roam through open spaces,dust bathe in the sun, forage in nettle patches andsometimes even have names. When did you eversee an advert showing near featherless chickenscrammed together in row upon row of cages?

Pictures on supermarket egg boxes completethe illusion of rural contentment. And anyway,how could you possibly bake a cake without eggs?

It’s easy to sell a myth when you know that fewpeople can check the truth. Embellish that mythwith ‘quality assurance’ schemes, a little ‘BritishLion Quality’ stamp on every egg and claims of‘high animal welfare’ and you have the near-perfect con. Tack on glowing claims that ‘eggs areone of the most nutritious foods money can buy’and you are in marketing heaven.

The United States Department of Agriculture(USDA), however, pays much more attention toscientific research than does our own government.It will not allow the American Egg Board to claim

that eggs are ‘healthy’ or ‘nutritious’. They arebanned from saying that eggs are a ‘rich source ofprotein’, that they are a good diet food and arecertainly not allowed to say that ‘eggs are goodfor you’. Why? Because eggs are none of thesethings and the health section of Cracked willexplain why and which diseases are linked to eggconsumption.

So what about dust bathing and the rest? Wecan say with complete authority that these claimsare even more bloated than those for health. Weknow because we have filmed extensively insidethe different types of commercial egg-producingunits – free range, barn and caged. Oh yes, cagesare still with us and most eggs come from birdsimprisoned in them. Cracked will take you throughthese different systems and reveal precisely whatthis means for the hens who have to endure them.

And yes, you can bake cakes without eggs andyou won’t know the difference. We’ll introduceyou to Viva!’s Vegan Recipe Club, with more egg-free dishes than you can shake a stick at.

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CrackedBy Veronika Powell MSc, Claire Palmer MScand Tony Wardle

©Viva! 20178 York CourtWilder StreetBristolBS2 8QH

0117 944 1000www.viva.org.ukwww.vivahealth.org.uk

Viva! is a registered charity no 1037486.

ContentsIntroduction 3Eggs and Your Health 4Egg Replacer Chart 8Egg Laying Hens 10The Truth About Assurance Schemes 19Rescued Hens – A Happy Ending 20

2

Introduction

CholesterolProfessor Spence also authored a scientific paperpublished in the Canadian Journal of Cardiologywarning that the amount of cholesterol in justone egg can exceed the maximumrecommended daily amount (RDA) (Spence etal., 2010). A single large egg yolk contains about275 milligrams whilst people at risk ofcardiovascular disease are advised not to eat morethan 200 milligrams. As Professor Spence pointsout, cutting down on cholesterol after you develophealth problems is a bit like shutting the stabledoor after the horse has bolted.

DiabetesThe main finding of Professor Spence’s study wasthat people who ate an egg a day had double therisk of developing diabetes type 2 compared topeople who had less than one egg a week.

Another study, of 57,000 US adults who ateeggs daily, found they were 58-77 per cent morelikely to develop diabetes type 2 than thosewho didn’t eat eggs (Djoussé et al., 2009). A morerecent study agrees – egg consumption affectsblood sugar metabolism and increases the risk ofdeveloping type 2 diabetes, mostly due to thecholesterol in eggs (Lee et al., 2014). Cholesterolboth inhibits the production of insulin (hormoneresponsible for sugar metabolism) and can lowerthe body’s sensitivity to it.

Food poisoning –SalmonellaSalmonella food poisoning is one of the mostcommon and widespread diseases carried by food,affecting tens of millions of people across theworld every year and eggs are the main source(Miranda et al., 2015). Symptoms includediarrhoea, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting andfever. Salmonella is destroyed by cooking so themain risk is from raw or undercooked eggs andegg products, such as meringues and mayonnaise.Contamination is another infection source, thebacteria passing from one product to another.

Salmonella is a hardy bacterium that can surviveseveral weeks in a dry environment and severalmonths in water (WHO, 2013). It comes inthousands of different strains and some are

antibiotic-resistant. In most cases, people whobecome ill recover within a few days but inextreme cases, or in people whose health iscompromised, death can be the result. Severitydepends upon your health and the particular strainof salmonella, although all strains can causedisease to some degree or other (WHO, 2013).

Because of previous salmonella outbreaks, egg-laying hens on farms subscribing to the British LionQuality code of practice have to be vaccinatedagainst it. According to the British Lion Qualitywebsite, 85 per cent of eggs in the UK are nowproduced under their mark (British Lion Qualitywebsite, 2016). It follows that 15 per cent of UKeggs come from farms that might or might nothave vaccinated their chickens or are imported.

Farms that have fewer than 350 hens don’thave to comply with the Salmonella NationalControl Programme so are largely unregulatedwhere salmonella is concerned (DEFRA, 2012).

Vaccination did significantly reduce the numberof salmonella food poisonings but it doesn’tguarantee eggs are salmonella-free. Although eggyolks and whites are rarely infected, it’s theeggshells that can be a considerable problem(O’Brien, 2013). In a UK study, eggshellcontamination with salmonella was lower invaccinated hens than non-vaccinated but thereduction was 15-60 per cent – far from theclaims of some newspaper headlines eggs are nowsalmonella-free (Arnold et al., 2014).

Under UK regulations, class A eggs are not to bewashed or cleaned, before or after grading – noexceptions (DEFRA, 2016). The reason is becausethe egg’s natural protective layer acts as a barrier

By Veronika Powell, MSc (Biology) and Tony WardleEggs have never been an essential part of thehuman diet, merely an addition. There is norecommended egg intake simply because we don’tneed to eat any. Whilst they do contain somenutrients, the health risks far outweigh any benefit.

To reinforce this point, in correspondencebetween USDA (United States Department ofAgriculture) and the American Egg Board, theBoard was clearly instructed that eggs cannot beadvertised as healthy and nutritious because oftheir cholesterol and fat content; they cannot bemarketed as protein-rich foods either, simplybecause they’re not (Greger, 2014). Eggs cannotbe sold as safe – because they are the main sourceof salmonella food poisoning (in the US) and there’sa risk of bird flu infection (Greger, 2014).

Clearly, the US government pays greater attentionto scientific research than does our owngovernment, which still persists in promoting eggs asa desirable food – even essential. They are neither!

Heart DiseaseEggs contain saturated fat and cholesterol yet theindustry is very good at confusing people – evenhealthcare professionals – into believing thateating eggs is harmless. There are very goodreasons to avoid them because they do increaseyour risk of heart disease.

Saturated ‘bad’ fatsProfessor David Spence, director of StrokePrevention & Atherosclerosis Research Centre inOntario, Canada, warns that eating eggs can havean effect on blood vessels similar to smoking(Spence et al., 2012). He and his team surveyedmore than 1,200 patients and found that regularlyeating egg yolks contributed to an increased build-up of arterial plaques. These are cholesterol depositsthat attach themselves to artery walls and become aserious risk factor for stroke and heart attack.

When eggs are cooked at high temperaturescholesterol oxidation takes place, a process thatresults in by-products increasing the risk of heartdisease. These cholesterol by-products may alsobe toxic to body cells and cause DNA damage(Mili�evi� et al., 2014).

There’s been a long-running debate aboutsaturated fats in the diet and whether they’re agood thing or a bad thing – mostly spurred bysensationalist media articles. The scientific datapoint in one direction only – saturated fats arenot good for you!

Recent research pooled data from two long-term studies involving over 126,000 people (Li etal., 2015). It showed that saturated fats (eggs area rich source) are not healthful and replacing themwith unsaturated fats and healthy carbohydratesfrom wholegrains can significantly reduce the riskof heart disease.

An earlier large study found much the samething – eating eggs and high-fat dairyproducts can increase the risk of heart failure(Nettleton et al., 2008).

CholineAnd there’s more! Eggs contain a substance calledcholine – an essential nutrient needed for cellmembranes, nerve signal transmission and othermetabolic functions. Too much, however, can bedamaging to health and eggs are by far the richestsource. We can get all the choline we need fromplant foods.

Research into choline intake and heart diseasefound that one of the by-products of choline(trimethylamine-N-oxide – TMAO) is associatedwith the build-up of arterial plaques, promotingheart disease (Tang et al., 2013). The higher thelevels of TMAO, the higher risk of serious ‘events’– strokes and heart attacks.

4

Eggs and health

Normal artery

Arterycross-section

Arterywall

Normal blood flow

Abnormal blood flow

Plaque

PlaqueNarrowed

artery

Narrowing of artery

5

Food poisoning –Listeria, Campylobacterand ContaminantsEggs can also carry other dangerous bacteria suchas Listeria and Campylobacter that have beenknown to cause serious illness in people, althoughthey are not the main source (ACMSF, 2016).

There is also the possibility of veterinary drugresidues and environmental pollutants. Laying henstreated with drugs and given feed containingpesticides can produce contaminated eggs(Miranda et al., 2015; Pirozzo et al., 2002). Tracesof many of these potentially toxic pollutantsare usually present even in free range andorganic eggs (Miranda et al., 2015).

CancerEgg consumption has been linkedto cancer, especially tohormone-sensitive cancers. Ina study of ovarian cancerpatients and healthy women,researchers discovered therewas a strong andsignificant relationshipbetween cholesterol fromeggs and the risk ofovarian cancer (Pirozzo etal., 2002). Interestingly, the linkwas only with egg cholesteroland not other sources ofcholesterol, which suggests the culpritmight be a substance linked to eggs and egg yolksbut not cholesterol itself. Women eating morethan two eggs a week had an 82 per cent higherrisk of developing ovarian cancer compared towomen eating less than one egg per fortnight.The risk increase from eating just one or two eggsa week was 71 per cent!

A large study examining the link between theconsumption of eggs, red meat and poultry andprostate cancer, published in the journal CancerPrevention Research, revealed that by consuming2.5 eggs per week, men increased their risk ofprostate cancer by 81 per cent, compared withmen who consumed less than half an egg perweek (Richman et al., 2011). It followed the dietaryhabits of 27,607 men for 14 years. Eating poultry

and processed red meat also increased the risk ofdeath for men who already had prostate cancer.

Another study looked specifically at the intakeof choline and the risk of prostate cancer over aperiod of 22 years (Richman et al., 2012). Wholeeggs are the richest dietary source of choline andit was discovered that choline is highlyconcentrated in prostate cancer cells and thathigher blood concentrations of choline areassociated with an increased risk of prostatecancer. Men with the highest choline intakehad a 70 per cent increased risk of lethalprostate cancer. The study authors said themechanism of exactly how choline is linked toprostate cancer isn’t clear but choline metabolismis clearly altered in prostate cancer.

A scientific team analysed a series of studies onthe relationships between egg consumption and

the risk of breast, prostate and ovariancancer (Keum et al., 2015). Five andmore eggs a week was linked toan increased risk of thesehormone-sensitive cancers –with the risk of fatal prostatecancer being especially high.The authors suggested severalfactors – cholesterol is involvedin the synthesising of sexhormones such as testosteroneand oestrogens that promotecell growth. Excessive amountsof sex hormones can contribute

to cancerous growths in hormone-sensitive tissues such as breast, ovary

or prostate. At the same time,cholesterol and choline are both essential

components of cell membranes and a plentifulsupply might help cancerous cells to grow.

Hard-boiled factsThe truth is – it’s best to steer clear of eggs – they’renot essential for your health and can significantlyharm it. Many recipes can easily be adapted to beegg-free – both a healthy and ethical choice! Awholesome vegan diet is the best possible for ourhealth, animals and the environment.

to bacteria and washing can posethe risk of salmonella penetratinginto the egg. The truth is thateggshells can carry salmonellaand you can become infectedby handling them.

A total of 721 salmonella caseswere reported from chickenflocks in 2014, lower than inprevious years but still aconsiderable number. In the sameyear, 34 known strains ofsalmonella were isolated fromflocks and 147 unknown (Animaland Plant Health Agency, 2015).The number of chicken-relatedsalmonella food poisoningreported cases in people was 6,505 in 2014(Animal and Plant Health Agency, 2015), howeverthe real number of cases is likely much higher.

At the moment, there is a target of no morethan two per cent of laying hen flocks to testpositive for the two main strains of salmonellainvolved in previous outbreaks (S. Enteritidis and S.Typhimurium) but this limit doesn’t apply toother salmonella strains (Animal and PlantHealth Agency, 2015).

Forty laying hen flocks tested positive forSalmonella under this statutory testing programmein 2014 but only two of the 40 were regulatedstrains (Animal and Plant Health Agency, 2015).Commercial vaccines are based on just one or bothof the two strains that were responsible for pastepidemics – S. Enteridis and S. Typhimurium (Arnoldet al., 2014). These two regulated strains are nowat very low levels but other strains are increasing(Animal and Plant Health Agency, 2015).

The latest report by the Advisory Committee onthe Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF, 2016)reckons that eggs produced under the UK Lioncode, or equivalent schemes, may be served rawor lightly cooked as they’re now considered at verylow risk of carrying the two regulated salmonellastrains. However, for eggs not produced under theBritish Lion Quality code or from outside the UK,existing advice remains – young children, theelderly, pregnant women and those who arealready unwell should avoid raw or undercookedeggs (ACMSF, 2016).

There were 88,715 confirmed cases ofsalmonella food poisoning in the EU in 2014(ACMSF, 2016). The number of food-borne

outbreaks was down by 44 per cent between2008 and 2014, from 1,888 to 1,048 outbreaks.However, eggs and egg products accounted foralmost a half of this number.

In some European countries (Austria, Belgium,the Czech Republic, Germany, and Hungary)vaccination of laying flocks is compulsory, inothers it is recommended (Bulgaria, Belgium,Cyprus, Estonia, France, Greece, Italy, Latvia,Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain: and the UK).In Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Ireland it isbanned (Arnold et al., 2014).

Legislation and official figures showing areduction in UK cases definitely linked to eggs aremeant to offer reassurance – 548 cases in 2009,324 in 2011 and 188 in 2014 (ACMSF, 2016).However, research by Inns et al. (2015) claimsthere were 287 cases in 2014, not 188. Anotherpaper documenting salmonella decline in the UK(Barrow et al., 2012) stated that eggs wereresponsible for 459 human cases in 2010 whereasthe official figures put the total at just 88 cases(ACMSF, 2016). This naturally raises doubtsabout the credibility of official figures.

The ACMSF report warns about the under-reporting of salmonella food poisoning cases asmany go undetected – large numbers of peopledon’t go to the doctor when they have foodpoisoning symptoms. It’s estimated that in 2010there were some 5.4 million genuine cases ofhuman salmonellosis in the EU (ACMSF, 2016) butonly 99,020 were reported (EFSA & ECDC, 2012).That is a huge difference and although not all caseswere related to eggs, it’s worth bearing in mind.

6

For more information on vegan health andnutrition go to the Viva!Health website:www.vivahealth.org.uk

7

Vegan egg replacers

Viva!

reg

cha

rity 10

3748

6Deliciously vegan recipes

What

Commercial

egg replacer

eg Ener-G Egg

or Orgran

Soya flour

Gram flour

(also called chickpea

or besan flour) with

regular flour

Ground

flaxseed

(also known as

linseed)

Silken tofu

Apple purée

Banana

Sweet potato

Soya yoghurt

Baking powder

and vinegar

Aquafaba

(canned chickpea

water, whisked)

How much

1½ tsp

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as

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pack

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2 tsp

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e ou

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at Viva!

’s www.veganrecipeclub.org.ukfor more sp

ecific gu

idan

ce.

material. Hens often have acommunal approach toincubating eggs and raisingyoung.

The egg industry is fond oftelling you that their naturalinstincts have entirely been bredout of modern hens but anyonewho has ever rescued any knowsthat this is nonsense – an excusefor institutionalised animal abuse.Within days of being set freethey revert to the kind ofbehaviour we have describedhere. These extraordinary littleanimals are still wild at heart.

Chick ProductionNo commercially produced chicks, whether foreggs or meat, ever see their mothers. The fertilisedeggs for chicks which will become egg layersdevelop inside industrialised incubators in tieredracks of trays, hatching after about 21 days. Chicksuse their egg tooth to break out of the shell but inthe wild, the mother hen would also help.

After hatching, baby chicks are tipped on to aconveyer belt to be sorted, the sick, weakly andall males – 50 per cent of the total – are rejectedand thrown into bins, sacks or crates. All these‘rejects’ are then gassed to death. Forty millionday-old, male baby chicks are killed each yearin UK hatcheries.

Selective breeding and genetics have changedthe face of chicken breeding. Male egg chickswould once have been kept for meat productionbut not now. Birds for broiler meat have been

selectively bred to reach adult weight in just sixweeks whilst egg-laying breeds have been bred forthe opposite traits – as skinny as possible tochannel all energy into laying eggs. It follows thatmale chicks born to egg-laying hens can’t lay eggsnor grow big enough or fast enough for the meatindustry.

Female chicks receive vaccinations and are‘debeaked’ at the hatchery before being sent torearing units. In just one month, 2.6 million babyegg-layer chicks can be transported from UKhatcheries to farms (DEFRA, 2015). These journeyscan be very long and result in dehydration,exhaustion and temperature shocks.

‘Debeaking’, ‘beak trimming’ or ‘beakamputation’ is done supposedly to reduce thedamage done by chickens pecking at each other –the result of crowded and unnatural conditions ategg farms. Day-old chicks have up to one third oftheir sensitive beaks, which are rich in bloodvessels and nerve endings, removed. It can be by amechanical cutter with a red-hot blade whichcauterises the exposed and bloody beak end butincreasingly, a method using a high intensityinfrared beam at the tip of the beak is beingadvocated.

During treatment, the chick’s head is firmly heldin a rubber holder preventing it from moving forup to 15 seconds. The beam is said to penetratethe hard outer horn and one to three weeks later,the tissue behind the damaged area heals and thebeak tip drops off.

No anaesthesia or pain relief is used for eitherprocess even though the procedure is known to bepainful. Beak trimming can cause difficulty eating

By Claire Palmer, MSc (Zoology) and Tony WardleChickens are extraordinary birds, as anyone whohas kept them will know. They are bright,intelligent, inquisitive and restless, struttingeverywhere, constantly seeking new treats to eat –almost anything from insects and their larvae tograsses, seeds and last night’s leftover veg curry!

They are also the most widely distributed of alldomesticated animals living all over the world.They are, of course, bred for their meat but alsofor eggs and selective breeding has produced twovery different types of chickens. Those reared formeat put on weight extraordinarily quickly whilstegg-laying hens are lightweight, even frail, as alltheir energy is directed into egg laying. The onething both types have in common is theappallingly cruel conditions in which they are kept.

Natural vs Farm Life of HensDomesticated chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus)are a subspecies of the red jungle fowl, still foundof the Indian Subcontinent, and naturally live fromfive to 10 years. In egg production, their lives lastlittle more than 18 months. Before they startlaying, at between 16 and 20 weeks, the industryrefers to them as pullets; once they’ve laid theybecome hens.

Chickens are naturally gregarious, social birdswho live together in flocks of four to 13individuals of varying ages. They have a distincthierarchy, or ‘pecking order’, where dominantbirds have priority over food and nesting sites andenforce their leadership by administering a sharppeck to underlings (Smith et al., 2014). Removinghens or roosters from a flock disrupts the socialbalance until a new pecking order is established.

In commercial egg production this natural orderis entirely ignored. Hens are forced into shedscontaining thousands of birds or into cages of upto 80. It is an enormous welfare insult and resultsin stress, fear, bullying, feather pecking and death.

Their natural instincts to roam and be activefrom dawn to dusk, foraging and scratching, arealso denied. Vegetation and tree cover would betheir natural habitat in which to seek safety frompredators – in fact, they’ve evolved complicatedstrategies for dealing with threats, sending outwarnings to others in the flock.

They are obviously not long-distance flyers butcan fly short hops to avoid danger, overcome anobstacle or to flutter up into the safety of trees toroost for the night.

They have evolved naturally to lay between 20and 30 eggs a year in order solely to produceyoung. To do so they will leave the flock and seekout a suitable, hidden nest site – sometimes a newone or even an existing nest lined with fresh

10

Egg laying hens

Phot

o ©

Vic

ky A

lhad

eff

11

even to use these sorry excuses for a laying areadue to competition from other hens.

Wire mesh floors were standard in batterycages and are a serious welfare assault, the wirebeing painfully uncomfortable and injurious tostand on. They slope so that eggs can roll to oneside of the cage and onto a conveyer belt. Thewelfare of hens comes secondary to collectingeggs. This is enrichment! It is obscene as ourinvestigation shows.

Failure of enriched cages to reduce frustration,boredom and stress is evidenced by the fact hensare routinely subjected to beak amputation(trimming) in order to reduce their ability to hurteach other.

Enriched cages have been condemned byscientists, experts and organisations such as Viva!as they patently fail to cater for hens’ physical andbehavioural needs on a staggering scale andimpose gross restrictions on basic movements. Theycan’t even spread or flap their wings properly.

The enriched cage units visited by ourinvestigators supply millions of eggs to consumerseach week yet revealed conditions and welfareproblems so bad that they directly compare withbattery cages, which are still widely in use outsideof Europe.

The farms we visited are each accredited with theBritish Lion Quality code of practice, which meansthey are supposedly subjected to regular andindependent auditing by personnel qualified toinspect the farms (British Lion Quality website, 2015).

Footage and stills from our investigation showhens with extensive feather loss, dead birds lyingamongst the living, beak mutilation, birdscrammed into cages with no privacy or means ofescape, air thick with dust, filthy cage floorscovered in faeces, birds who appear sick and dyingand barren cages. ‘Enrichment’ appears to makelittle, if any, improvement to hen’s lives (Viva!investigations, 2010-2015).

Despite this depressing situation, just over a halfof the 36 million egg-laying hens in Britain todaylive their entire ‘productive’ lives in these verticallystacked, enriched cages. They are usually in longlines of up to three tiers high in windowless shedsthat house up to 40,000 hens or even more. It’snot uncommon that there are multiple sheds onthe same site.

With such large flock sizes, weak and vulnerablebirds are at the mercy of others in these barrenconditions. Despite beak amputation, widespreadand sometimes lethal feather pecking is a grimconsequence of cage life.

The term ‘enriched cage’ is little more than amarketing ploy to cleverly deceive consumers intobelieving that hens experience high welfare andthat battery cages are a thing of the past. Theyaren’t and some 18 million hens are enduringthem right now. Their only relief will be when theyare considered ‘spent’, are brutally crammed intotransport boxes and sent to slaughter, their fleshbeing used in cheap chicken products.

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properly later in life, result in deformities and birdsmay lose appetite because of pain and deformitiescan result (Davis, 2004; Dennis and Cheng, 2012).Chicks destined for free range, enriched cage andbarn units all have their beaks trimmed asstandard. Scientific studies have established thatthe procedure is painfulat the time, in the daysand weeks followingand potentially long-term, depending on theage at which the chickis debeaked. There arestudies to show thatboth methods causeacute pain (Marchant-Forde et al, 2008).

A ban on beaktrimming in the UK wassupposed to beintroduced in 2016 buthas now beenpostponed indefinitely after pressure from eggproducers (The Poultry Site, 2015) or until ‘it canbe demonstrated under commercial conditionsthat laying hens could be managed without beaktrimming’ (Ares, 2014). Other European countriesare not so dismissive and have either banneddebeaking or don’t use it, including Norway,Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland andSwitzerland.

Sales IncreasingEgg consumption in Britain has been steadilygrowing over the past few years with around 33million being consumed every day – 12.2 billionannually. Some are imported but most are homegrown; 10 billion in 2015 (Egginfo website, 2016).

The laying hen is possibly the most abusedanimal on earth – billions of them churning outeggs day after day, mostly in shameful conditions.Britain’s contribution to this number is 36 millionwho inhabit a shadowy archipelago of enormoussheds surrounded by fences, sealed off from publicview (Lawler, 2015).

Viva! went undercover for a year to reveal whatlife is really like for laying hens, particularly sincethe ban on battery cages was introduced in 2012.Hours of footage, painstakingly taken by ourinvestigators at enriched cage, free range andorganic farms, have provided us with a clear view

of what life is like for these birds. No matter whatlabel their eggs carry, hens lead a desperatelymiserable life.

Due to mounting public pressure, there hasrecently been a surge in pledges by supermarketgiants such as Tesco (around 43 per cent of Tesco’s

1.4 billion eggs arecurrently laid by cagedhens each year – TescoPLC website, 2016),Morrisons and Iceland togo cage-free. Even ifthey stick to their wordthough, it will be a long,long time before ithappens – 2025! Othersupermarkets wentcage-free some time ago– Co-operative, Marks &Spencer and Waitrose –but continue to sell non-own branded products

which may contain eggs from caged hens. In theUS, Walmart and Costco have pledged to go cage-free, as have food giants McDonald’s and Nestlé.

Problem solved? Not in the least, according toour investigations. All systems of industrialised eggproduction are extraordinarily cruel, whethercaged, free range or barn.

Enriched CagesDue to campaigns that outraged public opinion,battery cages were banned in Europe in 2012.Each cage was little bigger than a large microwaveoven and housed five hens, each with a floorspace the size of an A4 piece of paper. They werereplaced with… different cages, laughingly calledenriched or colony cages.

They vary in capacity from 40 to 80 hens andeach hen must be provided with a floor space ofat least 750 sq cm. How big is that? The size of anA4 piece of paper PLUS an additional allowance alittle less than the size of a postcard. That’senrichment! Visualise a snooker table with eightyhens on it, caged in and never allowed out.

The birds continue to stand on a sloping, wiremesh floor; they have some perches, a tiny plasticscratching pad and a nesting box which isn’t a boxbut just a couple of flimsy sheets of plastichanging down, supposedly to provide privacy – nonest, just plastic sheets! Some birds are unable

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box; severely overgrown claws; thousands of birdssuffering from feather loss: and all had their beakstrimmed. Birds lay dying on the cage floor andthere were dehydrated corpses left to rot in thecages with living birds. Seewww.viva.org.uk/faceoff/eggs.

Free Range About 44 per cent of hens in Britain arecategorised as free range, with two per cent ofthese being organic (Egginfo website, 2015a).Competition between companies and highdemand have led to falling prices and an increasein flock size to boost output. European legislationpermits flock sizes of up to 2,500 birds per hectarewhich means four birds per square meter (EUCouncil Directive 1999/74/EC). This includes sheds,outbuildings and other obstructions. In practice,the stocking density is up to nine hens per squaremeter of usable space (Egginfo website, 2015b).

Free range production looks set to continuegrowing in size over coming years as an increasingnumber of companies have pledged to gocage-free.

As part of our Cracked campaign, we visited across section of British farms between Februaryand September 2015 – from the small, sellingeggs locally, to major suppliers. Some wereorganic, Soil Association and RSPCA approved.

Unfortunately, most free range hens are freeranging in name only. We know this not onlyfrom our current investigations but from pastexposés, including Happy Eggs, one of the UK’sbiggest producers – for more details see:www.viva.org.uk/cracked/investigations. This2010 investigation revealed that the few hens wesaw outside on the waterlogged range werescrawny, had poor feather cover and appearedunwell. Birds who would naturally choose to live insmall flocks of around ten birds are kept in largesheds with tens of thousands of other hens.

Even without the confinement of cage,overcrowding, injuries, frustrations and deathremain. Large stocking densities increase thecompetition between birds. UK legislation requiressmall pop holes leading to an open-air range butthe recommendation is just one pop hole for every600 birds (Egginfo website, 2015b). Studies revealthat many hens won’t take even one step outsidethe sheds. One piece of research showed that themaximum number of hens observed outside during

daylight hours at any one time was less than 15per cent of the total flock (Dawkins et al., 2003).

The reason birds don’t go outside is because thenumbers are too great, the stocking density isentirely inadequate, there is too muchcompetition, and birds are generally afraid to crossanother bird’s territory (Hegelund et al., 2005).

Injurious feather pecking remains a widespreadproblem on free range farms and beak mutilationis the industry’s standard solution. A ban on thepractice almost came into force, but the industrylobbied hard against it. Chairman of the BritishFree Range Egg Association (BFREA) stated: “Wemust keep lobbying our MPs so that they are fullyaware our industry is not ready for this legislation

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The Enriched CageFarms Viva! Visited K FreshViva! visited a K Fresh enriched colony unit atWithernsea on the East coast of England in 2015 –a company claiming to be ‘enriched colonyspecialists’ and have ‘invested heavily in the UKadoption of the enriched colony system’ (K Freshwebsite, 2015). They supply retailers with bothfree range and ‘value’ eggs.

In one huge, dusty and filthy shed, 20,000 birdswere crammed in cages stacked from floor toceiling. They were beak-trimmed and we sawextensive feather loss.

As with all cages, the hens had no mentalstimulation, nothing to occupy them, no privacyand were living on sloping wire floors. Wedocumented dead birds who had been left incages to rot. We obtained a vet’s opinion.

“There is marked feather loss and feathers arein poor condition. Possible causes andcontributing factors are injurious pecking,abrasion, malnutrition, chronic illness.” Andrew Knight Dip ECAWBM (AWSEL),DACAW, PhD, MRCVS, SFHEA.

“This bird has a prolapse of the oviduct. This canbe caused by forcing the birds to begin layingwhen they are too young, trying to pass eggswhich are too large, or poor nutrition. A prolapsedoviduct is difficult to treat and causes pain.”Dr. Lee Schrader, DVM, veterinary internalmedicine specialist

Ridgeway Foods (formerly Stonegate)Again in 2015, Viva! investigators visited anenriched cage farm in Wolverhampton owned byRidgeway Foods – one of the largest UK eggsuppliers. The conditions were dismal – thousandsof beak-trimmed birds living in crammed, filthycages. Many were suffering feather loss, some hadbare patches which were red and sore whileothers were almost entirely bald. The cage floorswere covered with faeces and dead hens wereseen rotting beneath the cages.

Bird BrosViva!’s Founder and Director, Juliet Gellatley, wasamongst the investigators who twice visited thisironically-named ‘Sunny Farm’ in 2015, owned byBird Bros, in Bedfordshire. It housed 455,000 henssupplying over 3 million eggs a week to shops,high street multiples, supermarkets, caterers andwholesalers.

It was again a litany of welfare insults – twoflaps of plastic hanging down constituting a nest

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of the European Animal Welfare Platform (NobleFoods website, 2015).

Phew! But in fact the hens we saw bore littleresemblance to the company’s massive advertisingcampaign. Even their workers admitted that theadverts and the reality were very different. Viva!filmed hens packed in sheds or outside on muddyconcrete, wading through water. There weremasses of hens crowded around pop holes andrefusing to go outside. ‘Environmental enrichment’outside did not include the swing shown inadverts (a gimmick, said a worker); sandpits werewater-logged, paddling pools were dirty.

The majority of birds remained inside the shedsand workers confessed that they dissuade thehens from going outside to lay as it increased theirworkload. One shed housed 7,800 birds in suchpoor conditions that some were practically bald.Despite beak trimming, feather pecking waswidespread.

One shed was heavily infested with red mitesand at least one bird was dead and another so illshe was unable to walk. This hen was abandonedto a so called ‘sick pen’ and left on bare wiremesh with other ill and injured birds.

Inside the sheds, hens were shocked intocompliance with electric wires. Because of theovercrowding, they were shocked apart to preventdeaths from smothering and to deter them fromdefecating near feeders and drinkers. Electricshocking is prohibited by the RSPCA, however, aworker told us on camera that RSPCA inspectorswould be lied to when they visited, being told theelectric wires were always turned off.

Glenrowan Farm EggsAgain in 2015, we visited a free range and barnunit – Rowbottom Farm – in Spalding whichsupplies eggs to local retailers. The windowlessshed was crowded and dirty and despite beingdaylight, no hens were outside. The floor inside theshed was gridded metal making it painful to standon and the air filthy and dusty. Most hens sufferedextensive feather loss and dead birds were filmedinside the shed and also piled in a bin outsidewhich was swarming with maggots and flies.

The sad reality is that many of these free-rangebirds are unlikely to ever see the sunlight or walkon grass.

to be put into place” (Ranger, 2015). This is a clearadmission that free range farming is not all it’scracked up to be.

Free range hens on organic farms haveadditional standards set out by an approvedcertification body.

The liberal use of antibiotics in caged hen units,to control rampant disease due to overcrowding,has now contributed to a serious threat to humanhealth from antibiotic resistant superbugs.However, the lack of use of these drugs onorganic farms can pose a threat to the hens whoendure illnesses that go untreated. Organic hens,of course, end up in the same slaughterhouses ascaged hens – a little while after the usual 72weeks but still very young compared to theirnatural life span. And day old male chicks are allkilled in organic systems.

Buying free range is buying into industrialfarming, and an industry that contributes to the40 million annual death toll of newly-hatchedmale chicks. It supports a life of misery for hens,painful mutilations, a terrifying journey to theslaughterhouse and a brutal death.

The Free Range FarmsViva! Visited In appearance, the sheds are similar to thosehousing hens laying ‘barn’ eggs. Our investigatorsfound that the hens, despite not being caged, hadfeather loss comparable to enriched cage hens. Itwas unclear during the investigation which henswent outside during the day, although studiesshow that many free range hens never go outsidebecause of high stocking densities, competition foraccess from other birds and inadequate outsideconditions. Hens can be fiercely territorial and willguard the exit holes!

Each farm revealed hens living in the samedismal, hellish environment. At one in Spalding,the air was thick with dust and we observedextensive feather loss and dead birds both insidethe shed and in a bin outside.

We sent our findings to veterinarian Dr AndrewKnight, who commented: “Carcasses representboth an infection hazard and a food source forrats, which can then attack living hens, especiallyif ill or weak”.

Dr Knight also commented on the widespreadfeather loss we showed him on free range farms:

“An immediate consequence of this extent offeather loss is an inability to thermoregulate (staywarm) unless fat, but subordinate (pecked) birdsmight also have less access to food ... anothercommon consequence from persistent pecking isskin injury and ultimately cannibalism”.

An organic free range farm we visited in EastSussex is considered a ‘model’ farm and hasreceived the Compassion in World Farming GoodEgg Award. It also carries the seal of approvalfrom the RSPCA. Whilst conditions were arguablybetter than on other farms we visited, similarproblems were seen – feather loss and theovercrowding of sheds. There was also a hen witha deformed beak and a dead hen lying on thefilthy floor.

At an organic, free range farm approved by TheSoil Association in Wiltshire, there were two sheds,each housing around 2,000 hens. Birds here wereobserved with sore-looking, bald patches on theirbacks and abdomens, possibly the result of a miteinfestation. At another RSPCA-assured, organicfree range farm in Lincolnshire, birds were housedin a packed shed. Some were balancingprecariously on a thin wire running along therafters, possibly to escape the sea of birds below.

The Happy Egg CompanyIn 2010, Viva! investigators visited a unit belongingto The Happy Egg Company, part of Noble Foods,one of the UK’s largest free-range egg brands. Itsupplies both free range and caged eggs to themajor supermarket chains. The company describesitself as being ‘independently monitored forwelfare’ by the RSPCA, has received the industry’sleading accolade – The Good Egg Award fromCompassion in World Farming – and is a member

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For more information about Viva!’s egginvestigations, go towww.viva.org.uk/cracked/investigations

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Glenrowan farm

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Physical demands on chickens have increasedremarkably since the 1950s as productivity andefficiency have become the driving forces behindegg production. Selective breeding, movementrestriction, intense lighting and high protein feedhave resulted in hens laying over 300 eggs a year.The result for them is a depletion of their naturalreserves of calcium and phosphorous, which canlead to skeletal defects, rickets, osteoporosis andfractures.

Despite their pelleted food being supplementedwith granular calcium, they simply can’t consumeenough to meet the calcium demands of theiralmost daily egg shell production. If a hen iscalcium deficient, it will be released from herbones which can quickly lead to osteoporosis – acondition where bone density diminishes and bonestructure deteriorates, making bones fragile andprone to breaking (Hester et al., 2013). Bonefractures are the main cause of suffering in farmedchickens – exacerbated by rough handling andtransport to the slaughterhouse.

Another common health issue is fatty liverdisease caused by having to eat large amounts offood to meet the demands made on their bodies.Fatty liver haemorrhagic syndrome results whenlarge amounts of fat are deposited in the liver andabdomen, which can lead to an enlarged liver thatis easily damaged and prone to bleeding. Thiscondition can be fatal due to internalhaemorrhaging when the hen is straining to layher egg. It is one the major causes of mortality inlaying hens (Ma et al., 2014).

Egg farms are also prone to red mite(Dermanyssus gallinae) infestations – blood-sucking

parasites that cause extreme skin irritation, reducedfeather quality, skin inflammation, weight loss,anaemia due to blood loss, feather pecking andeven cannibalism. Extreme infestation can result indeath. The nocturnal behaviour of red mites, whichsuck the birds’ blood during periods of darknessand hide in gaps and cracks during the daytime,means their complete eradication is difficult and aninfestation can cause extreme restlessness andstress for birds, particularly at night.

Most egg-laying hens are unable to performeven the most basic behaviours – includingflapping their wings, dustbathing or perching.

The conditions at egg farms are so demandingthat hens are usually ‘spent’ at around 72 weeks –a year and a half old. Spent means their egg layinghas declined to an unprofitable level. Many don’teven make it this far and die on the farm, oftenleft to rot unnoticed for days. Those who are sentto slaughter are grabbed by catchers working atmaximum speed and roughly thrust into transportcrates. Their fragile state is not a consideration.

They endure the same end as broiler (meat)chickens – being shackled upside down by theirfeet, stunned by having their heads immersed inan electrified water bath (which some will miss),having their throat slit followed by scalding, withsome still being conscious. An increasing numberare killed by gassing with a mixture of gasses butincluding CO2, which is not instant, is aversive andcauses desperate panic as birds fight for air.

At the end this 18-month process of abuse, thebodies of egg-laying hens are turned intoprocessed chicken products such as pies, pasties,soups and stock cubes.

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The health of hens

There is a number of quality assuranceschemes in Britain which were establishedsupposedly to give consumers confidence inthe products that carry the stamp ofapproval and assure them that animalshave been reared to good welfarestandards. Repeated exposés of farmssporting these assurances show that oftenthey aren’t to be trusted.

RSPCA AssuredRSPCA Assured (formerly Freedom Food) is theRSPCA’s farm assurance and food labellingscheme. It does not approve of cages for egg-laying hens, only free range and barn units.This label doesn’t guarantee anything else apartfrom cage-free eggs. During our investigationswe visited RSPCA assured farms and what wesaw was deeply depressing (see pages 16-17).

Red TractorOne day in 2000 there was no Red Tractorassurance scheme and the next day there wasand the majority of farms in Britain qualified forit simply by filling in some forms. It offers barelythe legal minimum conditions where animalsare concerned and those who transgress thestandards face no fines or punishment.

It claims to ‘promote clearer labelling andensure food originates from a trustworthysource’ (Red Tractor website, 2015). In truth, itsimply guarantees the product is legal.

The Red Tractor symbol does not guaranteethat a product has a British origin. Only atractor symbol in conjunction with the Britishflag indicates a product is from the UK.

British Lion Quality MarkBritish Lion Quality means simply that eggs areproduced to minimum legal food safetyrequirements, nothing else. In other words, thebaby chicks are vaccinated against salmonella.

Soil AssociationAccording to the Soil Association, animalshoused on organic farms should have access tofields, plenty of space, a non-geneticallymodified (GM free) diet and should be givendrugs only to treat illnesses (Soil Associationwebsite, 2015). But access to fields does notnecessarily mean the hens go outside. As withother schemes, male chicks are still a wasteproduct and spent hens face a similar end tothose in other systems.

The Truth About Assurance Schemes

have a little sleep before finishing the job. Afterthat, she would hop up onto the window ledgeand stare at Rocky the parrot until she had to beforcibly removed. “Her friend Brenda had a different hobby. After

breakfast, she would fly over the gate into thesheep barn to spend a few hours sitting on Nana,her favourite sheep. Not only did this keep herfeet warm but she could always find small treatsin Nana’s fleece, bits of oats and barley droppedby other sheep. No other sheep would do as acushion though, it had to be Nana!” Janet Taylor, Farm Animal Sanctuary Founder

Finally…Cutting eggs out of your diet is the kind, healthychoice. There are countless delicious recipes thatdon’t need eggs and for those that do, there aremany alternatives. Going vegan is easier thanmany people think and brings a wealth of benefitsto your life. All it takes is one decision and the willto change. We have evolved to thrive on a plant-based diet and millions of people are going veganevery year, join the crowd!

Viva! can help you to make the change with agreat range of recipes, advice and support.

For more information on the egg industry,please see Viva!’s report Laying Hens: The InsideStory and other resources atwww.viva.org.uk/cracked.

For more information on diet and your health, goto www.vivahealth.org.uk.

For egg-free recipes, visitwww.veganrecipeclub.org.uk

See Juliet’s visit to egg farms and a sanctuary here:www.viva.org.uk/faceoff/eggs

The Farm Animal Sanctuary,Worcestershirewww.thefarmanimalsanctuary.co.ukViva! runs an adoption scheme with The FarmAnimal Sanctuary which includes rescued egg-laying hens. Animals can be adopted for just £25a year, which is split between caring for theanimals at the sanctuary and Viva!’s campaigns toend cruel farming. Viva! saves animals by gettingpeople to change their diet while the sanctuaryoffers a safe haven to animals who have suffered.

Visit www.adoptafarmanimal.org.uk formore information.

Dahlia and Brenda“Our first 60 ex-caged hens arrived looking a very sick and sorry little crowd. Few feathers,beaks badly trimmed, some so badly they haddifficulty in eating. It took several days for thebravest one to venture through the door and outonto the grass. She lifted her feet very slowly andgingerly, it was the first time she’d seen grass inher entire life. “Within days the others followed her out. In a

few days they grew to know when it was feedingtime and treat time and would crowd around the

gate waiting for someone to appear with thebuckets. They soon discovered the best spots tofind worms and insects, indulged their naturalinstincts to forage, have a dust bath and stretchout in the sun – doing all the things that had beendenied to them since hatching.“Two of them were slow in growing back their

feathers so were brought to live in smaller housesnext to the sheep barns. One of them, Dahlia,developed a passion for flowers. She would sneakthrough the gate into the house yard, jump intothe nearest flowerpot and proceed to slowlyremove all the petals one by one, stopping only to

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A Happy Ending

Hug a Henwww.viva.org.uk/hug-a-henViva! believes it’s time we started seeinghens and other animals not as commoditiesbut as individuals with complex personalitiesand a right to live free from suffering andharm! If you have hens, know someone whodoes or can visit a sanctuary which cares forhens, please take a fascinating picture of ahen, either with you in it or without. Thenshare it with us and tell us about your hen!It may be one with a special personality or aheart-warming story about her. Help usshow how full of personality and huggablehens are!

Send your Hug-a-Hen pictures and storiesto hugahen@viva.org.uk.

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Dahlia before

Brenda and Nana

Dahlia after

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