This Pancake Day more than seven million hens will still be living in cages no bigger than your pancake, says the RSPCA.

Shoppers are urged to support higher welfare farmers and buy eggs from cage-free hens.

As people across the UK prepare to make pancakes today, RSPCA Assured is urging shoppers to look beyond the batter and choose eggs from hens living cage-free lives.

Although boxes of eggs are labelled free-range, many pancake mixes and other manufactured foods with egg ingredients are not required to be labelled with production methods, including caged hens.

The charity is also asking shoppers to support it in urging DEFRA to ban cages for laying hens.

Despite a common belief that cages are a thing of the past, an estimated 7.4 million egg-laying hens in the UK still spend their lives in cages. While battery cages were banned in 2012, many were simply replaced with so-called ‘enriched’ cages, giving each hen around the same space as a large pancake, about 31.5cm.

Izzy Candy, head of farming at RSPCA Assured, says: “Pancake Day is one of the biggest egg-eating days of the year, with millions of eggs cracked into mixing bowls across the country.

“We know the public cares deeply about hen welfare. But many would be shocked to learn that more than 17% of UK egg production still comes from caged hens.

“Shoppers should also be aware that, unlike boxes of eggs which are clearly marked with the method of production, there isn’t the same requirement to declare the kinds of eggs used as ingredients, such as in pancake mixes.

“This means people could be unwittingly buying eggs from caged hens.”

Caged hens are stressed and frustrated, leading to birds pulling out each other's feathers or develop bald patches where their heads and necks have rubbed on the bars when they poke their heads out to feed.

The RSPCA Assured label means hens are never kept in cramped cages. Instead, they live cage-free lives on free-range or organic farms, or inside cage-free barns with plenty of space to move around.

All RSPCA Assured certified egg producers must meet more than 700 strict standards aimed at improving hen welfare. These standards include providing perches, nest boxes and enrichment items like straw bales and pecking objects, which allow hens to express natural behaviour such as nesting, foraging and perching.

To ask your supermarket to stock more higher welfare food on the RSPCA Assured website go to https://www.rspcaassured.org.uk/ask-your-supermarket. To petition the government to ban cages for egg-laying hens, people are asked to complete the RSPCA’s quick online form: https://www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/campaign/farmcages

The RSPCA is urging Pancake Day cooks to use non-caged eggs today and to join its petition calling on the government to phase out cages for egg-laying hens and create a cage-free future for farmed birds.
The RSPCA is urging Pancake Day cooks to use non-caged eggs today and to join its petition calling on the government to phase out cages for egg-laying hens and create a cage-free future for farmed birds. (RSPCA/Good Fellas Farm)
The RSPCA is urging Pancake Day cooks to use non-caged eggs today and to join its petition calling on the government to phase out cages for egg-laying hens and create a cage-free future for farmed birds.
The RSPCA is urging Pancake Day cooks to use non-caged eggs today and to join its petition calling on the government to phase out cages for egg-laying hens and create a cage-free future for farmed birds. (RSPCA)