TORONTO—A newly released Animal Justice undercover video documents the cruel conditions inside an Ontario egg farm that supplies Farm Boy grocery stores.
The video shows tens of thousands of hens confined in restrictive cages their entire lives, many suffering with serious injuries and illness, as well as rough handling and killing. These conditions are sadly considered standard in Canada’s industrial egg production system.
However, rather than allowing the public to see how the eggs sold in its stores are produced, Farm Boy submitted baseless takedown requests to Facebook and Instagram, seeking the removal of Animal Justice’s posts promoting an online video viewing event.
The footage was lawfully recorded over several weeks by an undercover Animal Justice investigator working at a Burnbrae Farms facility in Lyn, Ontario. Burnbrae is Canada’s largest egg producer and a major supplier to Farm Boy. More than 70 per cent of hens at the facility, roughly 246,000 birds, are confined in cages.
While Farm Boy’s egg aisle features playful displays of plush chickens and egg cartons with names like Naturegg and Nestlaid, suggesting humane, outdoor farming. Animal Justice’s undercover footage tells a different story: hens in Burnbrae’s “alternative housing” are kept in cages stacked five rows high, with 20 birds in each cage. Others were subject to routine neglect and found living with untreated injuries and illnesses.
“What this video shows is the everyday reality behind eggs sold at Farm Boy—hundreds of thousands of hens confined in tiny cages, suffering from injuries and illness,” said Camille Labchuk, lawyer and executive director of Animal Justice. “But instead of coming clean with its customers, Farm Boy tried to suppress this investigation with bogus claims to social media platforms.”
Farm Boy’s parent company, Empire, also owns Sobeys and Longo’s—brands that promised to stop using cages in their egg supply by 2025, but have failed to keep that promise.
“As one of Canada’s big three grocery companies, Empire Foods’ failure to honour its own cage-free policy is holding Canada back, while Europe and the US continue to make significant progress in ending one of the cruellest practices in modern animal agriculture,” Ms. Labchuk said.
Based on industry-reported statistics, in 2025, the United Kingdom reached 79% cage-free status, European Union egg production had risen to 62% cage-free, and the US reached 45% cage-free. In 2025, Canadian egg production was just 20% cage-free.
This marks Animal Justice’s first undercover factory farm investigation in Ontario since portions of the province’s ag-gag law were ruled unconstitutional.
Watch the full video here.
Contact:
Josh Lynn
Public Relations Manager
[email protected]
Camille Labchuk
Executive Director
[email protected]