Our campaign to stop caged farming

Mother pigs are a heart breaking symbol of the 300 million animals suffering in cages across Europe, like hens, calves, rabbits, quail, ducks and geese.

Over 170 organisations and caring citizens across Europe joined forces to spearhead the End the Cage Age European Citizens’ Initiative.

Hard work spanning the course of 3 years culminated in a major victory and historical decision by the European Commission on June 30, 2021 to revise current EU legislation with a commitment to:

• Put forward a legislative proposal by the end of 2023 to phase out and finally prohibit the use of cages for hens, mother pigs, calves, rabbits, ducks, geese and other farmed animals
• Phase out the use of cages for farmed animals across Europe by 2027
• Ensure that all imported products in the EU comply with future cage-free standards
• Implement systems for incentives and financial support to European farmers during the transition to cage-free farming

This monumental event marked an overwhelming victory for the 1.4 million EU citizens who made their voices heard and took their struggle to the lawmakers of the European Union.

This made the End the Cage Age ECI the:

• 6^th ECI to succeed among 76 registered initiatives in the last eight years
• 3^rd highest ECI signature count
• 1^st ECI for farmed animal welfare to achieve the required threshold of 1 million signatures
• 1^st ECI for animal welfare that has successfully led to a commitment from the EU Commission to overturn EU legislation and to implement revisions which will take over 300 million animals out of their cruel cages by 2027
  

Our mission now is to monitor the legislative process and to ensure that the Commission sticks to its word and delivers on its commitments.

How close are we to a 100% cage-free Europe?

Our ECI, with 1.4 million citizens calling to end the inhumane treatment of farmed animals in cages, is proof that ending the cage age is a priority for Europeans.

To secure an EU-wide ban on cages we must put pressure on each EU Member State to embed a ban into their national law. We built a ‘League Table’ that ranks EU Countries in terms of how far down the legislative road they are in phasing out cages for farmed animals on a national level.

Even if there are some countries with slightly better national legislation than others, the only acceptable percentage, for any country, is 100% cage-free.

Our network

​The network for the 'End the Cage Age' European Citizens’ Initiative unites organisations under a common banner—to eliminate the use of cages in animal farming.