TORONTO—New undercover footage released today by Animal Justice lays bare the brutal conditions that still pass for “normal” inside the Sobeys supply chain, where 80 percent of eggs on the shelf come from hens tightly packed inside cages with barely any room to move—even though the company pledged to go cage-free by 2025 nearly a decade ago.
The investigation, carried out at a British Columbia farm supplying Safeway (a Sobeys brand) in that province, found hens confined in both conventional battery cages and so-called “enriched” cages.
Undercover video shows the roughly 50,000 birds at the farm crowded together with little room to move, some living in close proximity to dead cagemates, and others with injuries or signs of distress. Animal Justice also documented the use of electric “training wires” designed to prevent birds from extending their heads outside the bars.
Sobeys originally promised to go 100 percent cage-free by 2025, but according to the company’s own reporting, there has been no progress since 2021, with the company remaining at just 17.5 percent cage-free. Instead, earlier this month, Sobeys quietly revised its animal welfare goals to include new types of cages that do not meaningfully improve hens’ lives.
“Millions of hens are confined in cages for their entire lives, with barely enough room to move,” said PJ Nyman, corporate campaigns manager at Animal Justice. “Without federal protections for farmed animals, it’s up to major grocery chains like Sobeys to follow through on their promises. Nearly a decade ago, Sobeys committed to cage-free eggs—they owe it to their customers to keep that promise.”
Polling shows that 80 percent of Canadians support ending the use of cages. However, without major players like Sobeys leading the way, Canada’s transition to cage-free housing has remained stagnant, while other countries are showing steady progress, including the U.S., which recently reached 45% cage-free nationwide.
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