EU Parliament votes to ban caged farm systems... but there are caveats
The European Parliament has voted in favour of a resolution by the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) to ban cages for farmed animals. The ECI ‘End the Cage Age’ received 1.4 million signatures from people across the EU and would see caged systems banned for all farmed animals, including egg-laying hens, ducks, and rabbits, from 2027. The EU Parliament also called for a ban on force-feeding ducks and geese to make the French ‘delicacy’ foie gras.
For the bans to become law, the EU Commission must now review it and put it to EU member states for approval. The number of animals that this law would impact is enormous. Across the EU, more than 300 million animals are kept in cruel cages. It has been illegal to keep laying hens in barren battery cages since 2012, replacing them with so-called ‘enriched’ cages, providing as much space as an A4 sheet of paper for half of the EU’s 350 million commercial laying hens. Battery cages are still allowed for rabbits, and almost all of the 120 million rabbits farmed commercially every year are kept in them. Around 11 million sows are forced to live half the year in cages where they give birth and feed their young. Around 10 million dairy calves are kept alone in small pens. Quail are caged by the millions, while 40 million ducks and geese are caged and force-fed.
These conditions are not only horrific for the animals, but they also require the use of antibiotics to keep animals from getting sick in unsanitary conditions, risk the spread of zoonotic diseases, and create significant amounts of pollution and waste. If and when the cage ban does come into force, it will put the EU ahead of the UK, which still allows cages for laying hens and ‘game’ birds, and for sows to be kept in ‘farrowing crates’.
Though the EU’s potential ban has been praised by many animal welfare groups and is a historic first successful ECI for farmed animals, one obvious question is: why would the EU wait another six years to eliminate this inhumane practice? The answer is of course to allow for a ‘transition period’ for farmers. Implementing ‘higher welfare’ conditions costs money and the EU is worried that small and medium-sized farms, in particular, could be abandoned if the farmers find it a financial struggle.
But this is unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. One is that Europe’s largest farms produce 72 per cent of the bloc’s meat and dairy products. A handful of companies, such as France’s LDC and the Netherlands’ Plukon Food Group, produce the majority of Europe’s meat from broiler chickens. Dutch company Vion Food Group is one of the world’s largest producers of pig meat. The three largest companies in the EU dairy sector are investor-owned firms. Why can’t these companies be made to phase out the use of cages much faster? Last year’s acceleration of the closure of mink fur farms in the Netherlands following outbreaks of Covid-19 among mink and workers shows that if there is enough incentive, politicians will press for a quick end to cruel practices.
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The EU Parliament also outlines several caveats in its support for banning cages. Here is a particularly concerning one: “it should be recognised that in some cases, some forms of cage for housing brings more animal-welfare related benefits than negative effects for the animal concerned; whereas in any case cages must be proportionate to the size of the animal housed and the purpose to be achieved.” This suggests that in some cases farmers could continue to use cages for animals deemed to be better off in a cage than not. It is true that some animals don’t fare well in group-living situations - rabbits, for instance, are social creatures but also require a lot of space to get away from each other when they want to - but this by no means justifies keeping them in cages. The problem is not the type of housing system used, but the fact that these animals are not suited to be farmed at all.
We should also remember that the elimination of cage systems does not mean animal farming will therefore become humane by any stretch. There are plenty of cruel practices still utilised on cage-free farms which cause distress and pain to animals, including tail docking of pigs and debeaking of chickens. Moreover, animals can still be treated appallingly by farmworkers, as shown by numerous undercover investigations such as Surge’s recent expose of Willerby World Piggeries.
Whether EU member states will approve the ban remains to be seen. There are varying levels of animal welfare legislation between member states, with some far ahead of others. Push back from powerful meat industry bodies is likely, judging by the reaction of the UK’s National Pig Association in 2019 after Compassion in World Farming called for a ban on farrowing crates. It is also hard to imagine France accepting a ban on force-feeding ducks and geese for foie gras, given the outrage of the foie gras industry after the UK proposed banning it from being imported.
While this vote leaves a lot to be desired, it is encouraging that it follows a string of decisions within Europe in favour of plant-based diets. These include the EU’s rejection of Amendment 171, a draft bill that would have banned producers of plant-based dairy alternatives from using ‘dairy’ terms, and France’s push to reduce meat consumption through its climate and resilience bill. These moves show that the EU and at least some of the national governments within it are beginning to take a stand against the animal agricultural industry for the good of animals and the planet.
Claire Hamlett is a freelance journalist, writer and regular contributor at Surge. Based in Oxford, UK, Claire tells stories that challenge systemic exploitation of and disregard for animals and the environment and that point to a better way of doing things.
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