BBC's One Show focuses on The Big Move

Published 09/09/2011

The BBC's One Show featured an interview with Compassion's Welfare Manager Phil Brooke this week in a report on the EU barren battery cage ban.

Compassion in World Farming's Phil Brooke spoke to The One Show yesterday about the EU barren battery cage ban, which comes into effect on 1st January 2012.

The One Show team visited a poultry farm with hens in both barren battery cages and so-called "enriched" cages, to show the difference to hens across the EU come the New Year.

However, Phil told viewers that, while Compassion supports the ban, there are still welfare concerns for hens kept in the enriched cage systems.

About the enriched cage, he said: "The confinement is less extreme, there is some consideration for some of the needs of hens, but it is still a cage. We would always urge consumers to look out for cage free - free-range, barn or organic - if you want to be sure that the hens have had the kind of lives that they should have."

Our The Big Move campaign is calling on the European Commission and individual countries' governments to make sure their farmers are ready for the ban on barren battery cages, as recent figures obtained by Compassion revealed some countries like Greece, France and Italy, were lagging badly behind in moving hens out of battery cages.

The One Show report highlighted this and the worry it had caused in the British egg industry over the possibility of illegal eggs being sold in the UK, undercutting UK farmers.

Phil adds: "Come January 2012 retailers and caterers will have a responsibility not to receive illegally produced eggs from cruel systems and governments will have a duty to enforce animal cruelty laws against battery cages in their own countries."