In a first-of-its-kind in UK, Animal Justice Project is cracking open the UK egg industry, exposing every level of ‘welfare’ as rotten, through a ground-breaking undercover investigation series.
This is The Foul Truth about the British egg industry.
Our undercover investigator infiltrated ‘Sunny Farm’, a colony cage egg farm, run by East Anglia’s largest egg producer, Bird Bros, which supplies major supermarket, Lidl. As featured in the Mail Online. What we found inside was far from sunny...
What our investigation captured at this ‘megafarm’, can only be described as a living hell.
Hens were left trapped and dying in the cage mesh, gasping for air, being trampled on by other hens. Suffering and dying birds were afforded no veterinary help. Instead, one hen was callously necked by a farm worker with his bare hands. The hen was seen still trying to lift her head after having her neck wrung, likely still alive and suffering. The worker was also filmed viciously hitting hens with a shovel.
Dead hens were left in cages to decompose, some so rotten and trampled that they were stuck to the cage mesh. In the squalid shed, we filmed bin bags, brimming with hens' carcasses, and crawling with red mites. Bags upon bags of dead bodies.
These hens live in ‘enriched’ cages, which replaced the now-illegal, battery cages in 2012. Enriched cages are supposed to give hens more opportunity to carry out their natural behaviours by providing extra space and ‘enrichments’ such as a dust bath, nesting box and perches. What we filmed was far from rich.
“They live in enriched colonies which provide a warm, safe and happy environment – perfect for laying eggs. They even have secluded nest boxes for a little privacy!” – Bird Bros Eggs
Hens were packed into overcrowded cages, stepping on other collapsed hens. We filmed severe feather loss on many birds; their delicate skin looking sore to the touch. One hen was discarded outside in the snow, barely able to move.
“The severe crowding and barren caged environment left these birds very little room to move, or to exercise highly-motivated natural behaviours, such as foraging, exploring and dust-bathing. This results in chronic stress, which can result in feather pecking which subordinate birds are unable to escape. Severe feather loss was visible on numerous birds…Due to cage crowding, in one case another hen was observed walking over the body of one of these living, collapsed hens. None of these instances indicate sufficient levels of inspection, nor appropriate veterinary care.” – Professor Andrew Knight, MANZCVS, DipECAWBM (AWSEL), DipACAW, PhD, FRCVS, PFHEA
Hens were treated as little more than objects by workers. Our undercover investigator filmed a hen who was callously necked by a farm worker with his bare hands. She was seen still trying to lift her head after having her neck wrung, likely still alive and suffering. This worker was also filmed viciously hitting hens with a shovel.
In a covert conversation captured with workers, it was revealed that 300 hens had died of thirst due to a worker’s neglect in a neighbouring shed.
We filmed eggs piled-up on the filthy shed floor, some cracked and spilling all over the walkway. Some eggs were left touching dead hens’ rotting bodies.
Faeces from the cages above were dripping down onto hens’ heads, and dead birds were thrown carelessly into gangways, shoved in black bin bags and then burnt in an open-top incinerator.
*After viewing our investigation video and a subsequent audit, the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) has, at this time, revoked Sunny Farm's British Lion stamp.
Eggs from this hellhole will end up on the shelves of Lidl, which claims to follow the ‘Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare’ to support a so-called ‘life worth living’.
Tragically, what we witnessed violated every single one of these freedoms, proving once again that supermarkets’ welfare claims mean absolutely nothing to animals who are imprisoned on farms.
This was a British Lion-assured farm, and yet we exposed commonplace suffering, death and decay. Do you feel assured?
Lidl says that they care about animal welfare – make them prove it! Send a letter to their CEOs demanding that the supermarkets drop Bird Bros as a supplier in light of these horrific findings.
Time and time again we expose the horrendous conditions, squalor and suffering hidden behind welfare labels, consumer promises and even, government legislation. As long as companies are profiting from the exploitation of farmed animals, they will have no meaningful protection.
Animal Justice Project is fully committed to investigating reports of animal abuse on farms. If you have witnessed suspicious activity or suspect an establishment should be investigated, please contact us with more information.
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