This summer, Oksana, together with her partner Sasha, were employed at a laying hen farm in the village of Wioska in central-west Poland. The poultry farm belongs to the largest egg producer in the EU, Fermy Drobiu Woźniak. Nearly one million hens in cages and tens of thousands of hens in barns are reared at that farm. In fact, one in five laying hens in Poland lives on one of Woźniak’s farms.
Oksana and Sasha documented their daily work for six weeks. One of their primary duties was to remove dead hens from their cages, the birds died due to the poor rearing conditions, or were killed by other hens in the cages, or died as a result of becoming stuck. For example under a perch. Each day, the workers collected dozens to hundreds of dead birds. In fact some had been laying dead in the cages for several weeks and were already in a state of decomposition.
“Sometimes they were blue, and fluids leaked out of them,” says Sasha in the video.
The hens live in close confinement, resulting in aggression (including pecking each other to death) or acts of cannibalism. Numerous birds were in very poor physical condition,. They had missing plumage, had deformed legs and wounds to their bodies, and some died of exhaustion. The video also shows cases of hens dying while laying more eggs, with eggs stuck in their cloaca.
A veterinary inspection carried out several weeks after the footage was collected validated the concerns documented by the investigative workers. Anima International has filed a notice to the prosecutor’s office in Poland on the grounds of potential animal abuse. The footage will serve as evidence in the proceedings.
A ban on cage farming is currently under consideration by the EU as part of the revision of all EU animal welfare legislation. The European Citizens’ Initiative “End the Cage Age”, launched by Compassion in World Farming, has been signed by 1.4 million people. The European Commission is expected to present a legislative proposal on this issue this autumn.
But recent allegations that the plans could possibly be dropped have raised alarm amongst campaigners. “Many countries are already transitioning away from caged farming systems for hens,” says Kirsty Henderson, Executive Director of Anima International. “The EU must follow through on its promises and do its part in eradicating animal suffering from our food system.”
Fermy Drobiu Woźniak exports 70% of its production to 60 countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Every year, 300 million animals suffer in cages in the EU.