Opposition to animal welfare reforms reveals farming’s true colours

Hens eggs cage GettyImages-2265964176

The farming sector’s resistance to even modest welfare improvements exposes how it really views animals, says Juliet Gellatley, founder and director of Viva

In December 2025, I stood inside an industrial-scale enriched colony cage facility. The machinery was deafening, the ammonia stench overwhelming. Thousands of dejected, half-bald birds with deformed beaks and overgrown claws, jostling frantically for inches of space. If you’ve ever spent time with rescued hens living a genuinely free-range life, you’d understand why I call these places hell.

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