‘Horror’ at RSPCA Assured farms revealed

Lobbying

Animal Justice Undertaking, a number one animal advocacy group, carried out the covert investigation between September 2023 and January 2024 at distinguished RSPCA Assured free-range egg farms affiliated with the administrators of the British Free Vary Egg Producers Affiliation, which claims to be “the voice of the British free-range egg trade”. 

Ayrton Cooper, the campaigns supervisor for Animal Justice Undertaking, mentioned: “We’re urging shoppers to transcend the phantasm of ‘cage-free’ and embrace a really compassionate alternative by choosing egg-free alternate options. 

“Regardless of the shiny promoting campaigns selling ‘cage-free’ eggs, the truth is much from humane. What our investigation has uncovered is a stark reminder that labels will be deceiving, and behind the façade of ‘cage-free’ lies a world of struggling for tens of millions of hens. 

“It is time for shoppers to query the ethics behind their meals decisions and demand transparency and accountability from the meals trade. By transitioning to plant-based alternate options, we not solely safeguard the rights of animals but additionally pave the best way for a extra sustainable and moral future.”

RSPCA Assured’s personal survey confirms that 87 per cent of the British public worth hen welfare. Greater than 70 per cent of eggs bought within the UK have been in 2022 from cage-free hens and all main retailers within the UK have pledged to completely promote ‘cage-free’ eggs by 2025.

Audits

Regardless of this dedication, the unsettling video footage reveals a troubling actuality of the situations endured by cage-free hens. It depicts hundreds of birds confined inside expansive, factory-style sheds, denied entry to the outside.

Animal Justice Undertaking claims that RSPCA Assured bowed to trade stress – together with lobbying from the farm homeowners who’ve been discovered to have breached even probably the most fundamental requirements – and watered down its necessities for animal welfare procedures. 

In November 2023, BFREPA, together with the British Egg Business Council (BEIC), collectively despatched a letter to the RSPCA Assured certification scheme outlining ‘severe and important’ considerations over the introduction of recent requirements, together with verandas and pure mild for hens. 

Consequently, RSPCA Assured backed down and amended the proposed adjustments, eradicating the deadline for free-range verandas and increasing the timeframe for offering daylight to free-range hens to seven years.

A BFREPA spokesperson mentioned: “UK free vary and natural egg farms work to the very highest requirements of hen welfare and are topic to a rigorous auditing schedule by quite a few meals security and animal welfare certification our bodies. After reviewing the footage, RSPCA Assured carried out audits in any respect the websites final week. On account of the visits to the farms, two of the farms have been reinstated to the RSPCA Assured scheme. Work to reinstate the third farm is constant.” 

Mistreatment

The Animal Justice Undertaking investigation revealed “distressing scenes of overcrowding, neglect, and bullying” at Harper Farm in Leeds. The footage additionally exhibits intensive feather loss, baggage of deceased birds, no entry to the skin for hens, accidents, growths and sick hens; in addition to and injured hens unable to achieve meals or water on higher tiers, and useless and decaying our bodies on the decrease tier.

Harper Farms is RSPCA Assured and provides Sainsburys. The farm is owned by Jack Stephenson, who’s a director of BFREPA. Charlie Stephenson, the farm’s proprietor till he handed away, was mentioned to be a ‘stalwart’ of the free-range egg trade. He was a member of the BFREPA steering group, and one of many early members of RSPCA Assured, then referred to as Freedom Meals, and helped to develop techniques used below the Freedom Meals scheme.

A spokesperson for Animal Justice Undertaking mentioned: “Harper Farm in Leeds stood out for the obvious animal struggling. One hen was filmed being pecked to demise over a number of hours, whereas one other suffered intensive accidents, with a uncooked and bloody head and obvious eye harm. Lifeless birds littered the shed, and quite a few well being points plagued the flock, together with massive growths, bent combs, limping, cannibalism, extreme feather loss, and prolapses.”

The investigators additionally discovered situations of sickness, proof of cannibalism, useless birds in nest bins and mendacity throughout feeders, featherloss, and neglect at Pauline Anne Jones’ household farm in Powys. The ammonia was so robust contained in the farm, the Animal Justice Undertaking investigator recalled, that it “burned” their eyes.

The farm, run by her husband, Richard Jones, provides RSPCA Assured Sheriff’s Wooden Eggs to Stonegate. Pauline Anne Jones can be a BFREPA director. A spokesperson for Stonegate mentioned: “The care and welfare of our flocks are of the utmost significance to us, and we take allegations of mistreatment of birds very significantly. On receiving the footage, we instantly suspended the farm in query pending each our personal investigation and the experiences of certified unbiased veterinarians.