The Myth About Cage-Free Eggs

by Jennie Richards · Published July 10, 2014 · Updated July 8, 2021

The poultry industry has been extremely successful in marketing and positioning “cage-free” eggs as a more humane alternative to battery-caged hens. Though cage-free sounds better, and marketing labels make them look better, the truth is they are not a better or more humane life for egg-laying hens — because most of the exact same conditions exist for cage-free hens as battery-caged hens.

Virtually all eggs produced on cage-free farms come from large industrial factory farm operations with these conditions:

Extremely crowded, stressful conditions inside dark buildings with no natural light.
Hens constantly breathe in their own waste fumes and gases including ammonia and hydrogen sulfide; they never breathe fresh, clean air.
Hens are forcibly de-beaked – where their beaks are cut off and removed due to the constant stress they’re under in over-crowded conditions; their beaks never grow back and the wound from being de-beaked can cause pain their entire lives and suffering while eating.
Hens are forced into over-crowded conditions where hundreds of hens are packed in small spaces and often trample each other, live in their own feces and waste, in very unsanitary conditions.
Hens cannot walk, spread their wings, turn around, or enjoy any natural physical behaviors inherent to chickens; they can never walk or run outside or be mobile as is natural for them.
Hens on cage-free farms do not roam around barns and yards outside, like the advertising falsely suggests.
Hatcheries kill all male chicks when they’re born since they cannot use them for egg-laying. Millions and millions of male chicks are immediately crushed or gassed upon hatching, using suffocation and or machines that grind them up and use them as animal feed or fertilizer.
Hens are forced to mate, and are forcibly impregnated continually, until their bodies are so exhausted and depleted from egg-laying that they get sick, become arthritic, get reproductive cancers, and develop growths and reproductive tumors. They suffer and endure enormous pain and then are killed when they can no longer produce eggs—usually at one-year old (1/15th their normal lifespan).
After a hen’s production starts to decline because they are physically worn out and their bodies depleted—they are slaughtered.

The Humane Myth website (www.humanemyth.org) provides several investigative reports about their personal visitations to cage-free farms and here’s what they found.

Actions You Can Take:

Reduce or eliminate eggs from your diet and products made from eggs.
Replace eggs with one of the many healthy plant-based alternatives on the market today – not made from animal products.
Spread the word! Tell others about the cruel conditions that egg-laying hens endure today, and the myth about cage-free hens.

Download the PDF: Cage-Free Eggs Myth

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