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.
In the first part of our cage-free investigation, we exposed free-range egg farms linked to the British Free-range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA), hitting the headlines of major national newspapers including The Sunday Mirror, The Sunday People, The Sunday Express, The Mirror online, the Metro and the Mail Online. The public were understandably shocked and appalled by the horrific conditions and suffering we revealed at three RSPCA Assured farms supplying major UK supermarkets. As a result all three farms were suspended from the RSPCA Assured scheme and one was permanently removed.
But we weren't going to stop there…
In the second part of our cage-free exposé, we have infiltrated another four farms linked with BFREPA who represent over 70% of free-range egg producers in the UK. Two of the farms investigated in the second stage of our investigation supply brands who market themselves as being ‘market leaders’ and going ‘above and beyond’ in terms of animal welfare — Marks and Spencers and Happy Egg, as seen in the Independent. But are their ‘higher welfare’ claims all they’re cracked up to be?
Karen Campbell is the director of Glenrath Farms in Scotland — the leading free-range egg producer in the UK. They supply over one million eggs a day to major supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda via the Kitty Campbell Eggs brand, and other related brands.
Karen Campbell is also a director at the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA) and even won the top award from the Poultry Club of Scotland in 2022 for her 'Outstanding contribution to the Scottish poultry industry’. The Rotten truth at her farms was far from ‘award-winning’.
Dead hens were found littered throughout the shed floor, many face down in filth. Other hens stepped over their rotting bodies in distressing scenes. We found these seven hens, who appeared to have their necks snapped, discarded on the filthy floor.
Injuries were common throughout the sheds. We documented feather loss, painful looking growths and foot injuries. We filmed several hens collapsed, too weak to pick themselves up off the deep dirt.
The hens below had severely twisted and deformed beaks likely caused by debeaking, a procedure where up to a third of a hen’s beak is removed when they are chicks. This is supposed to prevent them from feather pecking, but often leads to deformities like those seen below. This can then make it difficult for hens to eat and groom themselves and cause long-term discomfort.
Despite the fact that free-range hens are supposed to have continuous daytime access to the outside, we filmed hens not being let outside on four separate days. This was despite the fact that there were no bird flu restrictions in the area at the time and no other obvious reasons for popholes not being opened.
Tim Bradley runs Home Farm in Lincolnshire. He was previously a council member at BFREPA and imprisons a specific breed of hen called ‘White Dekalb’ hens – a breed which lays up to 500 eggs a year (up to 50 times more than their free-living ancestors!). The farm was RSPCA Assured at the time of filming.
His farm is an ‘M&S Select Farm’ and his eggs will end up on the shelves of Marks and Spencer, who pride themselves on having ‘the highest standards of animal welfare in the market’. They even boast that they were ‘the first retailer to move to 100% free range eggs 20 years ago.’ Despite the ‘free-range’ labels, on one of our days of drone filming, the hens were locked inside the entire day. The farm has since been suspended by M&S.
“Whether it’s the milk in your morning coffee, your lunchtime egg sandwich or your roast dinner, we want our customers to be confident that M&S food has been produced to the highest standards of animal welfare.”
We filmed hens trapped in the slats of the metal shed floors. Some were trapped by their wings unable to move and another had her foot trapped and was hanging upside down by one leg with panic in her eyes.
Our investigator freed these trapped hens after filming them but if they had not been there the hens would have likely died slowly and in distress, like other trapped dead hens that we filmed inside the shed, which may have suffered for many hours or even days before dying.
Throughout the sheds we found hens collapsed, some covered in faeces and small insects. Some were suffering with injuries such as prolapsed cloacas, feather loss and very overgrown nails making it difficult to walk.
Others were collapsed in the dirt, surrounded by the bodies of those who had died before them. ‘Enrichment’, which is mandatory under the RSPCA Assured scheme, was pitiful and consisted of a plastic bottle and a discarded egg tray hanging from a rope. Nesting boxes were extremely crowded giving hens barely any room to move inside the barren spaces.
Patrick Lynn was a BFREPA Director until November 2023 and is currently one of the faces of the famous ‘Happy Egg’ brand, featured in a recent TV advert. Eggs from his farm are sold via the Happy Egg brand and end up on the shelves of supermarket giant, Tesco.
But do 'happy' eggs come from happy hens?
Hens at Hockerwood Park were in misery. Some were filmed with suspected infected prolapsed cloacas and what looked like a broken wing; others had deformed beaks from debeaking. The shed floor was piled high with faeces and dead hens were left to decompose on the metal slatted tiers.
Happy Egg boasts about the ‘well deserved enrichment’ they provide and having ‘plenty of trees’ to create ‘comfort and shade’ for ‘our girls’. The ‘enrichment’ we documented was nothing more than a plastic water bottle and a watering can tied to the metal tiers with a piece of string. Outside, our drone filmed muddy, barren fields with barely any hens in. A far cry from their shiny TV advert.
BFREPA Director Scott Bailey’s farm supplies eggs locally direct from his farm gate and wholesale across Pembrokeshire. Despite being a small, local farm, the scenes were similarly horrific. The farm has since been suspended by RSPCA Assured.
We filmed extreme crowding, leaving these hens little room to move. Dead hens were left rotting on the slatted floors whilst others stepped over them. Several birds pecked at the wing of a recently deceased hen in their feeder. One hen was filmed hunched over with a twisted neck, whilst another was suffering from a suspected infection and diarrhea.
"Numerous hens evidenced serious illness and injuries, that appeared untreated. These included infected, prolapsed cloacas, wings that appeared to be broken, extreme mite/lice infestations, an infected chest mass, lameness and swollen feet, splayed legs, and twisted necks and beaks. Many dead hens were visible, with bodies left among living hens on shelves and flooring. One dead body was even visible within a grain trough from which live hens were feeding.
Andrew Knight, Veterinary Professor of Animal Welfare
Yet again, we have exposed another four farms connected to the highest levels of so-called ‘welfare’ in the UK egg industry. Showing that associations, assurance labels and misleading marketing are all just a smokescreen to the suffering that hens endure in cage-free egg farms.
This is not just one rotten farm. This is a rotten industry.
Ahead of UK supermarkets committing to the cage-free commitment from 2025, 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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