How close are we to a cage free Europe?

Over one million citizens have demanded an end to caged farming by signing The End the Cage Age European Citizens Initiative (ECI).

This Initiative was the biggest political push for farmed animal welfare in European history, and has resulted in a ground-breaking commitment by the European Commission to phase out the use of cages for farmed animals across Europe!

To ensure legislation is introduced to ban cruel cages as soon as possible, we must continue campaigning to make our dream of a cage-free Europe even more likely – by pressuring our Member States to champion the banning of cages. We know that the Commission listens to the Member States: If national Agricultural Ministers speak out against cages, we increase our chances of a European-wide ban being implemented without delay.

How it works

1. Look at the table below and find your country
2. Click on the flag and read the information in the pop-up
3. Click on the twitter button and send a clear message to national decision-makers
4. Repeat the same actions on other countries as many times as possible

Table notes

Many factors determine if a Member State will support our ECI, including the percentage of animals still caged, national laws, and the support of key decision makers. Some countries are close to being totally cage free, while others still confine millions of animals with governments reluctant to bring about change.

The table is a living tool: we will update it as soon as any progress is made to end the use of cages.

On each flag, you’ll find the percentage of cage-free farmed animals and, in each pop-up, you'll find the number of animals still in cages. These numbers are calculated on the total number each species that can be farmed in cages like sows, rabbits, ducks, geese and hens. We are excluding quails and calves because there are no reliable figures for all Member States, although we are calling for a ban on caging both.

Table Key

Country Level

Species Level

Sources

Info on the percentages and caged animals

Data on annual animal numbers were taken from the following sources according to the most recent published data:

Sows – Eurostat 2021; Laying Hens – EU COM 2021; Rabbits – European Commission (DG Santé) 2016. However, we believe EU total has dropped from 119 million to around 78 million overall based on EU COM changes in tonnage reported for 2016 and projected for 2021. We estimate that 74 million of these are caged. Rabbit figures for individual countries are not published, but data suggests that French, Italian and Polish production has dropped whilst Spanish production has stayed more constant; Ducks and Geese - ITAVI 2020 and SSP, Eurofoiegras 2021. Where published figures are not available, estimates of number of animals farmed and caged have been calculated using generic estimates and data from various sources.

Info about national legislation

• End the cage age report
• For quails – Quail – Industry and national government statistics
• For calves
  • Reference for %ages in system Marcé, C., Guatteo, R., Bareille, N. and Fourichon, C., 2010. Dairy calf housing systems across Europe and risk for calf infectious diseases. Animal, 4(9), pp.1588-1596. except where stated otherwise
  • Reference for Czech %ages Staněk, S., Zink, V., Doležal, O. and Štolc, L., 2014. Survey of preweaning dairy calf-rearing practices in Czech dairy herds. Journal of dairy science, 97(6), pp.3973-3981
  • Reference for Bulgaria – National NGO
  • Reference for Poland – Compassion in World Farming investigation

Info on Minister's positions:

The Ministers' positions are based on public statements made by Ministers, and our interpretation of these statements. This is subject to change.

Updated in Jan 2023.