Breaking Video Exposes Cage-Free Egg Industry: Dead Birds, Rampant Suffering

Seoul — Animal rights charity PETA has just released its first-ever undercover investigation into cage-free egg operations in South Korea, one of which claimed to be certified humane. The disturbing video (available here) reveals thousands of chickens crammed into huge, filthy sheds where many barely had room to move and all were denied opportunities to forage, bask in the sun, and engage in other natural behaviors.

Investigators found numerous hens with missing feathers—typically the result of stress-induced self-mutilation, fighting, or health issues—and raw, irritated skin. They recorded workers handling birds roughly, including closing a fence gate on a hen’s head, crushing her neck. At one facility, investigators found piles of dead hens stacked inside the shed.

An image from PETA’s investigation. Credit: PETA

“Terror, suffering, and death run rampant whenever animals are exploited for food, no matter what misleading labels are slapped on the outside of the package,” says PETA Asia President Jason Baker. “PETA urges everyone to please, go vegan to spare chickens from lives of misery and pain in the egg industry.”

Chickens form complex social structures, dream when they sleep, and worry about the future, just as humans do. Mother hens begin teaching calls to their chicks before they even hatch. Chickens can live over 10 years, but in the egg industry they’re sent to slaughter when their egg production slows after just one or two years, and male chicks are killed immediately after hatching.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone. For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETAAsia.com or follow PETA Asia on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

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