Inside the cages Europe promised to end
Von der Leyen, Hansen and Várhelyi can no longer look away
For years, Animal Equality has documented the suffering of animals in cages across Europe. Our latest farm visits in Spain and Italy show nothing has changed: five years after the European Commission promised to end cages, mother pigs are still locked in metal crates, unable to turn around. Von der Leyen, Hansen and Várhelyi have the power to end this. Send them an email now.
Controlla che tutti i campi obbligatori siano compilati e riprova.
Why von der Leyen, Hansen and Várhelyi?
Why von der Leyen, Hansen and Várhelyi?
In 2021, the Commission promised to end cages by 2023. The deadline passed. Since 2024, Commissioners Várhelyi and Hansen under von der Leyen’s leadership, have met the factory farming industry more than 40 times.
Not acting was not an oversight, it was a political decision.
Von der Leyen leads the Commission. Várhelyi for animal welfare and Hansen is responsible for agriculture. All three have the power to deliver the ban, but still animals are paying the price of their delays.
So we confronted them. Through their life-size silhouettes, we showed once again what happens on the farms they have chosen to ignore for years.
The ban on cages was promised in 2021. Five years later, animals across Europe are still locked inside them: this is what von der Leyen, Hansen and Várhelyi chose not to deliver. Part of that promise is now back on the European agenda, and we will not accept delays, derogations or watered-down proposals. The ban for hens and the end of male chick killing must come in 2026. Mother pigs cannot wait beyond 2027.
Matteo Cupi
Vice President for Europe, Animal Equality
The same cages, across Europe
The same cages, across Europe.
For more than a decade, Animal Equality has documented the suffering of animals in cages across Europe.
Our latest farm visits, in Spain and Italy, show the same reality: mother pigs confined in crates where they cannot turn around, giving birth behind bars. Hens cramped in cages so small they can’t even spread their wings.
This is not one farm. It is a system repeated across Europe.
The cages are still there. So are we.
Tell von der Leyen, Hansen and Várhelyi: a proposal to ban cages for hens and end male chick killing in 2026, no more delays.
Save animals, eat plant based
As a consumer, you hold the power to protect animals from the meat industry. Every plant-based meal saves animals from a life of misery in factory farms and slaughterhouses.
Images on this page were documented by Animal Equality in farms in Spain and Italy in 2026.
For silhouettes: The image is used solely to identify the institutional recipient of the action; no endorsement or affiliation is implied.