Actors Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, and Peter Egan, comedian Jon Richardson, and broadcaster Kirsty Gallacher have joined forces with animal charity The Humane League UK to urge the prime minister to announce a ban on cages for hens by the end of the autumn.
In a joint letter, they invoked Andy Burnham’s words from his 2015 Labour leadership campaign, quoting Gandhi:
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be defined by the way its animals are treated.
It reads:
You are now prime minister, and hold the key to unlock each and every cage in this country. You can give millions of animals a concretely better life […] which is an opportunity for doing good that few people ever have. This is a once in a lifetime chance to burnish the greatness of this nation, and boost its moral progress. Please – take it.
This comes as animal campaigners, dressed as chickens, made their case for banning cages to the attendees of Liverpool’s Labour Party Conference, leafleting attendees from 7am to 8pm.
The government previously indicated intentions to ban cages as part of its animal welfare strategy. Its public consultation closed in March, with the government yet to comment on the outcome.
A UK ban would free some 6 million hens from cages, in a historic win for animal welfare. Campaigners say that legislation would lock in a transition the market has already largely made voluntarily.
Government statistics show that only 14% of UK eggs came from caged hens in the last quarter. And polling has found that an overwhelming 94% of the UK public oppose the use of cages for laying hens.
Cages cause multiple problems
Hens in cages have little more room to move than an A4 sheet of paper per animal. The cramped conditions make a bird’s natural behaviours, like dust-bathing, perching, roosting, and even stretching their wings, difficult or impossible.
This frustration results in higher rates of aggressive pecking among the birds. It also causes higher rates of brittle bones due to lack of exercise.
Major supermarkets including Aldi, Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, M&S and Waitrose have already gone fully cage-free for shell eggs. This demonstrates that the transition is both achievable and commercially viable.
Germany, Austria, Czechia, Denmark and the US state of California have introduced bans on cages for laying hens, while the EU is considering a bloc-wide ban.
Featured image via The Humane League UK
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