Happy Egg Co wants consumers to pay a premium for eggs it claims are laid by “happy hens” – but eyewitness footage reveals that chickens at farms that supply the brand face much the same misery, filth, and death as those at any other egg factory farm.
Happy Egg Co’s marketing materials depict idyllic scenes in which chickens are given acres of green fields, dotted with bushes and trees, to explore – when in reality, the sensitive birds PETA UK filmed were crammed so tightly into dark sheds that they could barely extend their wings to cool themselves or engage in natural behaviour like foraging and dust bathing to ease their anguish. Some pecked nervously at the dead bodies of their companions, who were left to rot among the living.
Chickens who are confined in such dismal conditions with barely anything to stimulate their sharp minds often mutilate one another or even themselves – so, in utter contrast to Happy Egg Co’s photos, many birds at the farms that were visited were virtually featherless, their skin left raw and bleeding.
The outdoor spaces available to chickens on the farms were little more than barren, muddy ranges – a setting that’s unappealing for vulnerable prey animals. As a result, few chickens were filmed daring to leave the prison sheds at all, while others huddled by the entrance.
Together, we can protect smart, social individuals from stressful confinement and suffering. Will you strengthen PETA’s campaigns for chickens and other animals by donating today?
Caring consumers recognise that chickens aren’t machines to be used to churn out eggs until their bodies are worn out and they’re crammed into crates and taken to the slaughterhouse – they’re individuals who feel pain and fear just as humans do, and empty marketing claims such as “free-range” do little to protect them from trauma and cruelty.
PETA has reported the farms implicated in our exposé to the RSPCA and the Advertising Standards Authority, calling for an end to Happy Egg Co’s misleading branding and marketing – and we’re encouraging thousands of misled consumers to make the only truly humane choice by leaving eggs and other animal-derived products off their plates.
Please give today to help us create a kinder, cleaner, and healthier world for all species.
Thank you for your compassion and generosity.