End of eggs from battery chickens in Norgesgruppen of companies

Industrial Chicken.Photo: wikimedia.org

Kiwi, Joker, and Spar will stop selling eggs from battery chickens. The owner, Norgesgruppen, has decided to phase out battery chicken produced eggs by the end of 2019.

In total, there are 1,375 stores among the three supermarket chains, who are to stop selling eggs from chickens kept in cages. The fourth retail chain owned by Norgesgruppen, Menu, has already stopped such sales.

Rema 1000 removed eggs from battery hens from their stores in 2011, after pressure from the Animal Shelters Alliance. After a dialogue with the animal rights organization Anima, in March this year, the Bunnpris chain decided to do the same.

‘We would like to commend Norgesgruppen for cutting sale of eggs from caged hens. It shows that they are listening to consumers, and that they take animal welfare seriously’ said the leader of Anima, Hilde Valbjørn Hagelin.

The original, Danish Anima, founded a branch in Norway this year, and have started a petition to stop the sale of eggs from battery hens. Several other Norwegian animal protection organizations have actively worked against the sale of such eggs.

Around 40% of Norwegian eggs are laid by battery chickens. This corresponds to approximately 1.6 million hens in total. Each hen has a space the size of an A4 sheet of paper to move, and they never leave the cage during their lifetime, which is a clear violation of every chicken’s basic instinct and normal habits of behaviour.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today