Which came first, the egg or the caged hen?

Hi there,

From refrigerated grocery shelves to breakfast menus, eggs are everywhere. They’re part of the treats and pastries in bakery display cases, they show up in restaurant recipes, and convenience stores market them as a quick source of protein on the go.

But how’d the eggs get there in the first place?

While the “chicken or egg” question is a little tongue-in-cheek, it’s worth understanding the real story of the egg, and everything that led up to the moment it showed up on the shelf. Let’s rewind.

It all starts with a bird.

She hatches into a world where she spends the majority of her too-short life in a tiny wire cage the size of a filing cabinet drawer. Instead of experiencing fresh air and the warmth of sun on her feathers, she lives in a shed with lots and lots of other hens. She might lay over 300 eggs in a year, but she can only sustain that for a year or two before she’s utterly spent.

From the wires under her feet to the brutal realities of life in a cramped cage, she lives in agony.

Her eggs—and those of other abused hens just like her—are collected, sold, and transformed into bakery items, restaurant meals, grocery store products, and more—concealing the fact that behind every egg, there’s a story just like this. 

We won’t stop until every hen is free from life in a cage.

We’re not letting any company (big or small) get away with cruelty—no matter where they’re headquartered, what they sell, or how many customers they have.

Right now, we’re reaching out to Flowers Foods—owner of brands like Wonder Bread, Tastykake, and Nature’s Own—to demand better for hundreds of thousands of hens stuck in this broken system. Flowers Foods had published a public pledge to stop using cruel cages in its operations, but now it has unpublished its policy. Will you join me in calling on Flowers Foods to follow through?

TAKE ACTION [[link removed]]
When our shared community works together, I know we have the power to change this story.

For the animals,

Allie Gunter

Campaigns Manager

P.S. Behind every egg in the food industry, there's a hen suffering in silence. But together, we can change that. Will you join me in sending a powerful message to Flowers Foods?



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We exist to end the abuse of animals raised for food. But we can’t do it without you. The Humane League is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization ranked "Best In America" by the Independent Charities of America and ranked one of the world's four most effective animal protection organizations by Animal Charity Evaluators. Our federal EIN number is 04-3817491.

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