THE CHANGE IS HAPPENING
Egg production in Latam keeps growing every year.
Ditching cages in the egg and food industries could impact the lives of millions of hens.
Latam’s cage-free egg production has gained momentum in recent years. Many companies and producers have adopted cage-free policies in response to increasing consumer demand for better welfare for laying hens. These commitments came from various industries including hospitality, retail, restaurants, and consumer packaged goods.
IN 2022 SINERGIA ANIMAL AND OTHER NGOs HELPED ACHIEVE:
13
Commitments
in Latam
45
Global commitments
WHY ARE BATTERY CAGES CRUEL?
Lack of space
Up to 12 birds can be crowded into a small cage. This often means that each bird has less space than an A4 sheet of paper in which to spend their life.
Frustration
They cannot engage in natural behaviors such as spreading their wings, walking freely, or nesting. This constantly frustrates them.
Pain
Caged hens have increased risk of bone diseases such as osteoporosis, making them prone to fractures and deformities. They also have to stand on a metal grate that hurts their feet.
Death and filth
Sometimes dead hens are left to rot for days, forcing the surviving birds to live with decomposing bodies at their feet. Hens are often also forced to live over piles of their own their own feces.
Public health
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded that cage systems have a higher prevalence of Salmonella compared to cage-free systems.
Cage-free systems are not cruelty-free. In both cases, hens are still being exploited for human consumption. Because male chicks can't lay eggs and are therefore useless to the industry, they are slaughtered in both cage-free and battery-cage systems. In poorly managed cage-free systems, hens can still suffer in many ways. And hens are sent to the slaughterhouse in cage-free systems as soon as they no longer produce enough eggs, which usually happens quite prematurely.
​
Please remember: the best way to protect animals is to not eat them.
WHAT IS A CAGE-FREE POLICY?
A growing number of companies have pledged to ditch the cruel battery-cage systems that have long been used in the egg industry. They may publish such policies on their website, social media, or other communication outlets.
However, for these commitments to have a meaningful impact, actionable changes and progress tracking are necessary to ensure that they are being fulfilled—and, if they are not, companies must be held accountable.
1
Company uses eggs in their products, or sells eggs.
2
a. Company publishes a cage-free commitment pledging to only use or sell eggs from cage-free farms.
3
Company starts implementing their policy and moves towards achieving 100% cage-free eggs by a set deadline.
b. If a company does not publish a policy, NGOs like Sinergia Animal work with dialogue and pressure to ask them for a commitment.
Through collaboration between producers, retailers, and consumers in Latam, we can create a more humane and sustainable food system.
