Eggs

Pros

• Hens are not in cages and have a little more space to move. Perches and nest boxes should be provided.

Cons

• Hens are kept indoors all the time, often in overcrowded, filthy, factory-farm conditions.
• Beak “trimming”, a painful mutilation, is commonly conducted because of the stressful conditions.
• Birds experience, on average, 10 days of disabling pain, 109 days of hurtful pain, and 130 days of annoying pain in their short lives.
• Females are gassed to death at around 18 months when they no longer produce so many eggs.
• Around 45 million male chicks are killed each year in the UK because they cannot lay eggs.
• This industry is linked to ammonia pollution, which is dangerous to human health.

Pros

None.

Cons

• These three terms all denote the same thing: birds held in cages, unable to move freely, breathe fresh air, scratch in the earth, or have a life worth living.
• Birds get little more space than an A4 sheet of paper, which is not enough to perform basic functions.
• Cages may be stacked seven high, with waste dropping onto the birds below.
• Checking the birds is impossible.
• Beak “trimming”, a painful mutilation, is commonly conducted because of the stressful conditions.
• Birds experience, on average, 27 days of disabling pain, 263 days of hurtful pain, and 420 days of annoying pain in their short lives.
• Around 45 million male chicks killed each year in the UK because they cannot lay eggs.
• Females are gassed to death at around 18 months when they no longer produce so many eggs.
• This industry is linked to ammonia pollution, which is dangerous to human health.

Pros

• Birds have access to the outdoors and space to move more freely.
• They are supposed to be provided with vegetation which allows them to feel safe while giving them things to explore.
• They are also given nest boxes and perches.

Cons

• Investigations show that the legal requirements for hens are often not provided.
• The indoor units (for overnight and bad weather) are the same factory farm sheds as for barn eggs.
• Birds may never get outside because they cannot get to the popholes and doors may not even be opened for days at a time.
• When they do get out, they may only be given a patch of dirt with nothing to explore or interact with.
• Beak-trimming, a painful mutilation, is permitted.
• An investigation into a Happy Egg Co. farm found hens were provided with just two pieces of enrichment – a plastic bottle and a bale of hay – for every thousand birds, which most of them could not even access.
• Hens are slaughtered in gas chambers at around 18 months old.
• All male chicks are gassed to death on hatching.

Pros

• No cages, and hens should be given enrichment, dustbathing opportunities, and perches.

Cons

• RSPCA Assured certifies indoor systems as well as free range, and it is not always easy to tell which is which. As above, both have problems.
• One investigation found dead hens littered through the shed, birds with twisted and deformed beaks (likely caused by beak “trimming”) and birds not allowed outside for days at a time. In both indoor and outdoor farms, large flock sizes are permitted which can be stressful for the birds.
• Beak “trimming”, a painful mutilation, is permitted. Hens are slaughtered inside gas chambers when they are no longer deemed profitable.
• Male chicks are slaughtered on the first day of their lives, also gassed to death.

Pros

• All organic eggs are free range with birds living in smaller flocks, which is less stressful for them and encourages them to move about more freely.
• Birds provided with more space than free-range birds.
• Beak “trimming” is not permitted.
• No routine antibiotic use.

Cons

• Hens are slaughtered inside gas chambers when no longer profitable.
• Male chicks are gassed to death on the first day of their lives.

Pros

None.

Cons

• Ducks are usually factory farmed.
• One investigation revealed lame birds using their wings to drag themselves over excreta-sodden barn floors.
• Workers filmed killing ducks by dislocating their necks and leaving lame, sick and blind birds to suffer in pain.
• Open water is generally not provided, which leads to eye infections and blindness.
• Ducks slaughtered when no longer profitable.
• Male ducks killed at hatch because they cannot lay eggs.