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“Is ‘cage free’ really the most humane option for egg-laying hens?” by mvolz


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This article at Our World in Data arguing in favour of "cage free" hens includes this graph from the Welfare Footprint Project (which spoke at EAG 2023) which has a nice breakdown which concludes that cage free aviaries are the most humane option of three types of hen housing studied.

However, according to this analysis, hens in furnished cages have the lowest prevalence of excruciating conditions- not cage free.

Moreover I am not convinced the tables for disabling and excruciating conditions are correct. The underlying data is very limited; where there is data "analysis," TFA uses almost no statistical technique; in some parts the "confidence intervals" mostly consists of rounding to the nearest 5. Sometimes it's even worse than that and is mostly guessing.

Therefore the analysis is very subject to the researcher's own biases. I think it's very plausible the amount of time [...]





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Outline:

(01:34) Excruciating conditions

(01:38) Vent injuries

(02:36) Peritonitis

(05:42) Disabling pain

(06:10) Keel bone fractures

(06:54) Nest deprivation

(08:02) Which is the most humane?

(13:20) Comment

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First published:

October 23rd, 2025

Source:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/soz6CerTGpEWFXLeZ/is-cage-free-really-the-most-humane-option-for-egg-laying

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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