In a first-of-its-kind in the 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.
For our third instalment of our exposé into the British egg industry, we targeted the highest so-called ‘welfare’ that the British egg industry has to offer. We are showing that awards, accolades, and assurance labels mean nothing to the hens kept inside egg farms. We launched in the Mirror online and in print to an audience of 32 million.
We infiltrated multiple farms during 2023 and 2024 associated with the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA), a body that represents approximately 600 egg farmers who produce 70% of the nation's free-range eggs.
“Nobody looks better after the welfare of hens than you do the egg producer. No one cares more about the welfare of free-range hens than the producers. This country leads the way in free-range.” James Baxter, Chair of the BFREPA, at BFREPA Live.
All of the following farms that we investigated are RSPCA Assured, and between them, supply free-range eggs to at least five major UK supermarkets.
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Harper Farm is owned by BFREPA Director Jack Stephenson. James Potter Eggs from the hens imprisoned here will end up on the shelves of Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda and Co-op. The farm also directly supplies Sainsbury's own-brand free-range eggs. What we uncovered was nothing short of a nightmare.
Severe feather loss was commonplace. Some of the hens we filmed were red raw and looked painfully sore. Feather loss is often caused by feather pecking provoked by stress and boredom. It can also be a symptom of red mites — all common features of their cramped and crowded conditions in cage-free farms where up to 16,000 hens live in one shed.
We documented severe bullying and aggressive fighting among hens. This hen’s face and head were repeatedly pecked at until bloodied, and she was unable to open her eyes. We filmed another hen being viciously attacked by a group of other hens over three and a half hours until she collapsed, exhausted, and died.
Dead and decomposing hens were a common sight throughout the sheds. Carcasses littered the lower floor of the multi-tier system, with some looking like they had been left to decompose for days or even weeks. Hens walked on piles of decomposing bodies left to rot on the metal floors. The number of dead birds wasn’t surprising as we filmed hens unable to jump up to the upper tiers to reach their food and water supply.
Multiple hens were suffering from horrific injuries and illness. We filmed hens who appeared to be egg bound, a painful condition when an unlaid egg gets stuck in her egg duct. This can lead to death and is usually caused by a lack of calcium due to an overproduction of eggs, stress or dehydration. We filmed other hens with growths, suspected respiratory issues and several with severe prolapses.
Through a combination of install cameras and a drone sent up to monitor the farm, we observed no hens being let outside at all at Harper Farm. On four separate days during our investigation popholes were left unopened and hens remained trapped inside their crowded barns.
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Sherriff’s Wood Eggs in Powys, Wales, is the family farm of Pauline Jones, a BFREPA Director. Their black-feathered hens lay eggs that are sold by Stonegate, a major supplier of own-label eggs to Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, and Ocado.
Sainsbury’s was one of the first supermarkets to commit to 100% cage-free whole eggs in 2009, followed by eggs as ingredients in 2012. They boast that ‘our basics eggs are laid by chickens living in spacious barns on RSPCA Assured-approved farms'.
Hens were collapsed and suffering on metal slatted flooring. One hen had a severely twisted neck and was being pecked at and bullied by other hens.
Dead hens were scattered across the metal floors and in nest boxes. Dead hens’ bodies were found piled up in a chest freezer, discarded like rubbish.
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Lucy Hinch is a BFREPA Director. She farms over 300,000 cage-free hens at her three family farms in Lincolnshire and Rutland. The eggs from these farms are sold through LJ Fairburn, one of the largest independent egg suppliers in the UK. LJ Fairburn stocks supermarket giants Asda, Co-op, Aldi, and Costco.
At yet another RSPCA Assured BFREPA Director-led free-range farm, we discovered hens left to suffer and die on the shed floor. We filmed at least one egg bound hen and hens with bloody prolapses.
Hens’ dead bodies were thrown away like rubbish. Several dozen sacks of dead bodies were found in bin liners.
The plastic bottle in the photo below is an example of the pathetic ‘enrichment’ hens were given on this farm. Free-range hens must be given ‘enrichment’ such as nesting boxes, dust boxes and toys to play with, by law, to encourage them to carry out their ‘natural’ behaviours.
Other examples of ‘enrichment’ included plastic bags and a discarded egg crate. Nesting boxes in at least one of the sheds had been blocked off so hens couldn’t use them.
“The footage from RSPCA Assured free-range egg farms showed widespread suffering among laying hens, with serious health issues and high mortality rates due to inadequate care and barren environments. Chronic stress led to feather pecking and prolonged attacks on subordinate birds, causing significant suffering and death across the farms.” Andrew Knight, Veterinary Professor of Animal Welfare, University of Winchester.
Despite the free-range marketing of hens roaming freely in grassy meadows, across all of the farms that we visited, we documented no hens being let outside at all. Both government and RSPCA Assured guidelines state that for hens to be labelled free-range, they must have ‘continuous daytime access to outside runs’.
The British Lion Code of Practice which assures 90% of the egg industry states;
“Sufficient pop-holes in a building must be opened before 09.00 hours and must be left open so as to provide access to the land area for a daily minimum of 8 hours, or to dusk. Except when this is precluded by inclement weather conditions, or in the case of temporary restrictions imposed by veterinary authorities, all pop-holes should normally be open.”
Although there were no bird flu restrictions in the area at the time or within the last few months, on all farms, we filmed empty ranges and popholes that had been unopened for as long as four days.
Is this the kind of freedom that free-range promised you?
Despite all major UK supermarkets and food companies committing to going cage-free for all their eggs by 2025, we know that moving millions of hens from colony cages into large, crowded barns or free-range farms WILL NOT give them a ‘happy life’.
Our Cage-free Isn’t Cruelty-free campaign looks past the misleading cage-free marketing and exposes cage-free as the ‘high-welfare’ lie that it is.
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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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