Production form - furnished cage

Eggs from hens in furnished cages

Unfurnished cages were prohibited in the EU in January 2012. Lack of implementation however demands that the criterion is followed up accordingly.

In Sweden, the housing of hens for egg production in cages was banned in 1988 by the Animal Welfare Ordinance (1988:539), with a transition period of 10 years. Egg production in battery cages could however be pursued in Sweden until January 2004, when the last exemption expired. During the Swedish conversion period, extensive research was conducted, which has led to a wealth of accumulated knowledge on animal welfare and housing conditions for laying hens.

In the mid-90s the researchers established that, from an animal welfare point of view, it was more important for the hen to be able to lay eggs in a nest box, sit on perches and sand bathe than to be housed in a specific system. The researchers' position is that furnished cages and free-range systems have advantages and disadvantages, but that both systems meet the functional requirements and the Animal Welfare Act's requirement that animals should be treated well and protected from unnecessary suffering and disease. In light of the scientific evidence, in 1997 the government approved furnished cages as a permitted housing alternative. The new wording of the Swedish Animal Welfare Ordinance required that the housing should satisfy the hens' need for a nest box, perches and sand bathing.

In 1999, the EU decided that battery cages would be banned from 2012, by way of Directive 1999/74/EC. The Directive's minimum requirements for good animal welfare for hens is access to perches, nest boxes and litter to peck and scratch in, irrespective of housing system. The Directive is a minimum directive, which means that individual Member States can have more stringent legislation. However, only a few Member States avail of this opportunity.

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