Ahold Delhaize: Stop extreme animal cruelty
Ahold Delhaize is authorizing extreme animal abuse
Multinational retail and wholesale giant Ahold Delhaize—which operates U.S. supermarket chains like Food Lion, Giant, Hannaford, and Stop & Shop—continues to allow one of the most inhumane factory farming practices: confining animals in cages for their entire lives.
The company claims, “we truly believe that supporting animal welfare is the right thing to do,” but actions speak louder than words. In 2016, Ahold Delhaize promised to stop using cages for hens in its U.S. supply chain by 2025. Now, that deadline has been pushed to 2032. Progress for pregnant pigs is also slow, with cages set to be eliminated by 2028, three years later than once promised. They remain alarmingly silent about any progress for pigs or hens.
Email Ahold Delhaize executives and demand a meaningful commitment to end cages for animals
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Ahold Delhaize’s vague response
At Ahold Delhaize’s annual shareholder meeting in April 2025, activists staged powerful protests both inside and outside the event, demanding accountability for the company’s broken promises on animal welfare. A shocking undercover investigation at a pig farm linked to Ahold Delhaize was released right before the meeting. When pressed, CEO Frans Muller offered vague, empty statements—responses that failed to address the stark realities of suffering within Ahold Delhaize’s supply chain.
Ahold Delhaize’s failure to meet even its own animal welfare standards undermines both trust and its professed values. While the company publicly acknowledges that animals feel pain and emotions, its actions tell a different story.
Dane Charbeneau
Campaigns Manager
Animal Equality
Gestation crates for pigs are a real problem… Basically, you’re asking a sow to live in an airline seat.
Temple Grandin
I think it’s something that needs to be phased out.
Associate Professor, Department of Animal Science.
Colorado State University
[T]he close confinement of sows in stalls or tethers is one of the most extreme examples of cruelty to an animal. It continues throughout much of life and is much worse than severely beating an animal.
Donald M. Broom
Professor of Animal Welfare.
University of Cambridge
Confinement of sows during pregnancy, especially in individual stalls or on tethers, can be cold, uncomfortable and injurious, and imposes severe restrictions on natural behaviour.
John Webster
Sr. Research Fellow and Emeritus Professor of Animal Husbandry and creator of The Five Freedoms.
University of Bristol
Gestation cages:
The cruelest confinement of pigs
These 7-by-2-foot cages take an immense physical and mental toll on the animals.
Pigs cannot walk, turn around, or stand comfortably in these cages. Beneath them are hard floors with slats for the urine and feces to fall through before collecting in giant outdoor waste lagoons.
Professor Ian Duncan, a scholar of animal welfare at the University of Guelph, has described it as “one of the cruelest forms of confinement devised by humankind.”
Ahold Delhaize is authorizing extreme animal suffering
Pregnant pigs are confined to cages of 7-by-2-foot that don’t let them turn around.
Research shows that these cages—gestation crates—cause physical and psychological suffering and painful urinary infections.
Unable to move, their bones and muscles weaken, have open wounds due to the constant abrasion against the cage bars, many develop cardiovascular problems, overgrown hooves that cause them pain when they stand, digestive problems,
Hens trapped in cages
Hens are social animals who like to forage for food, take dust baths, perch, and care for their chicks.
In Ahold Delhaize’s US operations, hens used for eggs are crammed into cages with other birds, leaving each hen with less space than a standard letter.
The hens cannot spread their wings, perch, roost, nest, dust-bathe, forage, or explore.
They are victims of violence from workers, and their bones often break when their wings get caught in the wire. They are forced to live like this for up to two years.
Because of the poor conditions, many hens die and rot in the cage alongside other birds.
Ahold Delhaize is losing public trust
In the United States, ten states have restricted cages for hens, eleven states have banned gestation cages, and thousands of companies worldwide—including international Ahold Delhaize supply chains—are eliminating cages.
Ahold Delhaize says, “Farm animal well-being is not only a good business practice – because our customers expect and trust us to do the right thing – but we truly believe that supporting animal welfare is the right thing to do.”
But the grocery giant has pushed off progress on animal welfare, leaving millions of animals to suffer.
Disclaimer: Images represent factory farms that use cages. They do not necessarily supply to Ahold Delhaize.
Stop animal abuse with every meal
Pigs, hens, and other animals feel pain and deserve to be protected from abuse.
You can protect these innocent animals by simply choosing plant‑based alternatives.
