8 March 2019

Free-Range Egg Fraud Sparks Lawsuit

Free-range eggs producer accused of deceiving US consumers The Guardian

carton of Nellie's free range eggs

The Guardian reported on March 7, 2019 that “Nellie’s New Hampshire-based parent company, Pete and Gerry’s Organics, has labeled the eggs, which cost up to $8 for a dozen, as ‘Certified humane.’” This claim is being challenged in a lawsuit by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. While Nellie’s Free Range Eggs packaging “shows hens in open pastures,” the lawsuit alleges that as many as 20,000 hens are crammed into sheds. Read the article here: Free-range eggs producer accused of deceiving US consumers.

What Can I Do?

Please choose an egg-free diet and share this information. There are no “humane” eggs being sold to consumers regardless of how they are labeled. “Free range” is a legally meaningless marketing term merely suggesting that the hens whose eggs are being sold as “free range” are not kept in battery cages despite being crowded and confined in buildings, and seldom if ever permitted to “range” outdoors before being gassed to death in metal containers or trucked to slaughterhouses after a year of relentless egg-laying. And the male chicks of the egg industry are ALWAYS destroyed at birth.

If you wish to ask a particular company how their “free-range” or “cage-free” hens live and die under their label, please download this questionnaire and send it with a self-addressed stamped envelope to the company:

Free Range Survey

 

For delicious egg-free, animal-free recipes, see:

Vegan Recipes

 

Baby Chicks on Shells

For more information, see:
“Free-Range” Poultry and Eggs: Not All They’re Cracked Up To Be

Free Range