HANNAFORD: END THIS ABUSE
Nearly a decade ago, Hannaford promised to sell only cage-free eggs by 2025. But they quietly abandoned that promise, leaving millions of hens to suffer in cramped, filthy cages.
HANNAFORD’s Broken Promise
Hannaford is a major grocery chain serving communities across New England and New York, owned by Ahold Delhaize, one of the world’s largest food retailers. It markets itself as wholesome, local, and community-minded. But behind that friendly image lies systemic cruelty.
Hannaford continues to buy from factory farms that cram hens into wire cages so small they can’t even spread their wings. These animals spend their lives standing on metal bars, surrounded by filth, often beside the bodies of dead cage mates.
In 2016, Hannaford’s parent company publicly committed to ending this cruelty by going cage-free. But nearly a decade later, Hannaford has broken that promise, still profiting from the very suffering it pledged to stop. Instead of progress, the company has chosen delay, deception, and denial while millions of hens remain trapped in misery.
EMAIL Mike Vail, Hannaford’s CEO
The Reality They Don’t Want You to See
Confinement and Cruelty
Hens in cages are trapped their entire lives. Each bird has barely enough space to stand, let alone turn around or stretch her wings. Cages are stacked in rows, with wire floors that tear at their feet and prevent any natural movement. They are denied basic comforts like perches, dust baths, or sunlight — their world reduced to metal and filth. From birth to death, these hens never touch the ground, never explore, never experience freedom.
Filth and Suffering
The conditions are brutal and unsanitary. Hens are forced to live in their own waste, breathing ammonia and bacteria day in and day out. Feather loss, injuries, and infections are common, with many birds dying before they even reach the slaughterhouse. Dead or dying hens often lie right next to the living, with no cleanup or care. Chronic stress, fear, and aggression overwhelm these birds because their world is small, dark, and oppressive.
A Life of Lost Potential
Caged hens are robbed of everything that makes life worth living. They cannot scratch, forage, or flap their wings. Their bodies weaken, their spirits crush, and their lives are measured in pain and confinement. Scientists warn these cages endanger food safety, and public health organizations condemn them, yet companies like Hannaford continue to profit from this cruelty. For these birds, every day is a fight to survive in a space that was never meant for living.
Why This Matters
Dozens of major grocery chains have already made the shift away from cages because their customers demanded it. Even McDonald’s has already phased these systems out.
But Hannaford and its parent company, Ahold Delhaize, is choosing delay, excuses, and profits over responsibility.
Experts agree these systems create serious food safety risks and result in the lowest-quality eggs. The American Public Health Association opposes them. And yet, most Hannaford shoppers have no idea their groceries are coming from conditions so filthy and inhumane they’ve been outlawed in several New England states.
TAKE ACTION
Hannaford will change only when enough people speak up and make it clear that extreme animal cruelty isn’t acceptable.
Demand that Hannaford stop sourcing from farms that confine hens in cages.
*Images and descriptions on this website are representative of farms that use cages.
