‘Free-range’ egg farms that provide to supermarkets chains have been stripped of their RSPCA Assured standing after an undercover investigation discovered hens residing in ‘appalling’ circumstances.
The covert investigation – performed by Animal Justice Project (AJP) – flew drones over the farms discovering that the ‘free-range’ hens weren’t let loose on any of the a number of days that they filmed.
Instead secretly filmed footage revealed that the tens of hundreds of birds have been residing in darkish and cramped sheds and have been surrounded by the our bodies and skeletons of lifeless hens.
In some circumstances, the horrific circumstances made the hens distressed inflicting them to lose feathers and exhibit behaviours in direction of one another together with cannibalism, bullying and aggressive pecking.
They additionally discovered injured and sick hens that have been unable to achieve meals or water on the higher tiers and so have been left ready to die.
The 5 farms that have been investigated have been Harper Farm in Leeds, owned by BFREPA director Jack Stephenson, BFREPA director Pauline Jones’ household farm in Powys, Wales, BFREPA director Lucy Hinch’s three household farms in Leicestershire.
The farms present eggs to manufacturers on sale at main supermarkets throughout the UK, together with Aldi and Sainsbury’s.
Their merchandise have been labelled as being each ‘free-range’ and RSPCA Assured – a typical first launched 25 years in the past to fight animal cruelty – in addition to bearing the Lion mark, which represents the ‘highest requirements’ in UK egg manufacturing in keeping with the BEIC.
At Harper Farm in Leeds – the place 46,000 hens are housed throughout six sheds – investigators witnessed ‘distressing’ scenes of overcrowding, cannibalism, neglect and bullying.
Footage exhibits luggage full of lifeless hens, in addition to injured and sick hens unable to achieve meals or water left to die across the already-dead carcasses of others.
One hen was filmed being brutally pecked to demise over a number of hours, while others additionally suffered in depth accidents inflicted by different birds.
AJP additionally claimed the hens weren’t as soon as given outdoors access, which ought to be each day beneath RSPCA Assured standards, within the 4 days they noticed the farm.
One employee within the farm’s award-winning cafe was covertly filmed stating Harper Farm provides eggs to James Potter Eggs, that are offered at Tesco, Co-Op, Sainsbury’s and ASDA.
A spokesperson for ASDA mentioned they weren’t at present sourcing any own-brand eggs from the farms talked about within the investigation and mentioned they stood behind the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) response as a member ‘as regards to rooster welfare’.
Sainsbury’s admitted that Harper Farm provides ‘lower than 0.1 per cent’ of its own-brand eggs; including that they have been urgently investigating the allegations into the therapy of hens with Yorkshire Farmhouse, the father or mother firm behind James Potter Eggs.
At a farm in Powys, central Wales, owned by the household of BFREPA director Pauline Jones and at present run by her husband, Richard Jones, AJP claims to have noticed related horrors together with sickness, cannibalism, lifeless birds and widespread neglect.
The farm, which homes 21,500 hens, provides to Sheriff’s Wood Eggs, which provides eggs to firm Stonegate, who present eggs to Ocado and Sainsbury’s.
Stonegate has since suspended its use of Sheriff’s Wood Eggs and Sainsbury’s mentioned they by no means used eggs from the farm in Wales.
Over three days they noticed the farm, AJP mentioned hens weren’t as soon as seen roaming outdoors.
Three farms in Leicestershire belonging to the household of BFREPA director Lucy Hinch housing greater than 216,000 ‘free-range’ hens have been additionally investigated.
The charity filmed the farms on 4 separate days when hens weren’t let loose, regardless of beneficial climate circumstances and there being no chook flu restrictions on these days.
Aldi admitted to being equipped by one of many farms related with Lucy Hinch on the time of AJP’s investigations, however added they not have been.
Tesco neither confirmed or denied whether or not any of the farms investigated equipped eggs to its shops, however requested reporters to contact the BRC ‘for an industry-wide view’.
Andrew Opie, Director of Food & Sustainability on the BRC, mentioned: ‘Our members take their duties to animal welfare very significantly and work intently with trusted suppliers so that prime welfare requirements are upheld.
‘They have strict processes in place and can completely examine any proof of non-conformity to make sure that any issues are instantly addressed.’
Co-op denied that they sourced any eggs from any of the three investigated farms and solely promote ‘100% free vary eggs throughout all our 2,400 shops’.
A Stonegate spokesperson 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.
‘We additionally insisted that the farm refer the matter to their native authority.
‘The web site was audited by an RSPCA auditor throughout an unannounced inspection and individually the British Industry Egg Council have additionally carried out an audit.
‘We will await the collective findings of the respective experiences earlier than taking the required actions.’
A spokesperson for LJ Fairburn & Son, which was equipped by among the farms related to Lucy Hinch, mentioned: ‘Since being made conscious of a video apparently exhibiting unacceptable welfare circumstances at a farm owned by certainly one of our producers, we’ve launched an instantaneous investigation.
‘We aren’t at present sourcing eggs from the farm involved.
‘The welfare of hens, each on our personal farms and people of our producers, is paramount and types the foundations of our business.
LJ Fairburn & Son’s eggs are offered at ASDA shops throughout the nation.
Veterinary Professor Andrew Knight, who considered the AJP footage from the investigated farms, mentioned it confirmed the hens struggling in below-par circumstances.
‘In brief, the circumstances wherein these hens have been saved have been more likely to be chronically disturbing to them, and to trigger nice struggling in quite a few hens,’ he mentioned.
‘The struggling and demise of laying hens seemed to be current throughout all of the free-range egg farms I considered footage of.
‘Multiple critical well being issues have been clearly evident, with none indicators of the veterinary care these warranted.
He added: ‘Many hens additionally confirmed extreme feather loss, according to barren surroundings leaving restricted alternative to maneuver, or to train highly-motivated pure behaviours, similar to foraging, exploring and dust-bathing.
‘This ends in power stress, which can lead to feather pecking with subordinate birds typically unable to flee.
‘Subordinate birds have been filmed struggling extended assaults on this footage. This causes nice struggling, and may result in the demise of attacked birds.’
AJP Campaigns Manager Ayrton Cooper mentioned: ‘Despite the shiny promoting campaigns selling ‘cage-free’ eggs, the fact is way from humane.
‘What our investigation has uncovered is a stark reminder that labels could be deceiving, and behind the façade of ‘cage-free’ lies a world of struggling for thousands and thousands of hens.
‘It’s time for shoppers to query the ethics behind their meals decisions and demand transparency and accountability from the meals {industry}. ‘
An RSPCA Assured spokesperson mentioned: ‘We are extraordinarily involved by this upsetting footage, which falls nicely under the upper welfare requirements we count on on RSPCA Assured licensed farms.
‘Animal welfare is our sole precedence and as quickly because the footage was reported to us we suspended all three farms and urgently launched an investigation.
‘This means the farms can not at present promote or market any eggs as RSPCA Assured.
‘One case of poor welfare is one too many, which is why we’re taking this grievance very significantly.’
The AJP investigation additionally comes in spite of everything main UK retailers just lately pledged to solely promote ‘cage-free’ eggs – the identical as free-range eggs – by 2025.
Jack Stephenson at Harper Farm, Pauline Jones and BFREPA have been all contacted however didn’t reply.
Lucy Hinch was contacted however opted to not remark.
