MEP Eleonora Evi (Italy, Greens/EFA) commented: “The overwhelming support received by this initiative, signed by 101 MEPs from across the political spectrum, shows - once again - that there is a strong political support to ban the cruel practice of caged farming in the EU. In its official response to the ECI we expect the Commission to fully back the European citizens’ ask and introduce as soon as possible a phase out of caged farming through a revision of Directive 98/58 on the protection of farm animals. The Commission cannot afford to shy away from enabling the change that so many people - both inside and outside the European Parliament - are expecting to see. It’s time to End the Cage Age”.

Olga Kikou, Head of Compassion in World Farming EU, said: “This letter from over 100 MEPs confirms the overwhelming support for a ban on caged farming shown by European politicians from left, right and centre at the very successful European Parliament hearing earlier this month. The cruelty inherent in confining over 300 million farm animals every year in cages that restrict their movement, and the need to generalise the use of alternative, cage-free systems, is recognised ever more widely. We now look to the European Commission to make good on its promise to phase out cages by revising the 1998 directive on farmed animals as soon as possible.”

1.4 million citizens unite against cages

When animals are concentrated in large numbers in confined spaces, they do not experience a life worth living. There is a great deal of scientific evidence that farmed animals suffer in cages, yet every year in the EU over 300 million still spend all or part of their lives in cages, pens or stalls.