Today, the European Commission has launched a public consultation seeking the public’s views on how to modernise the EU’s animal welfare rules.

With a closing date of 12 December 2025, the consultation is a stepping stone to ensure the European Commission delivers the long-overdue proposals to ban cages for all species in 2026.

Speak up for a cage-free future

As part of Our Voices, we urge our supporters to take part in the public consultation by the 12 December 2025, and demand ambitious proposals to ban cages for all animals and improve the life of nearly 300 million sows, laying hens, rabbits, quail, geese, and calves suffering in cages every year.

Currently, we are working to produce top arguments to help supporters speak up for animals, and provide their feedback to the European Commission on why we need an comprehensive cage ban. These will be made available in the coming weeks.

Unforgettable broken promises 

In 2019, more than 1.4 million people signed the End the Cage Age European Citizens’ Initiative in support of the ban and an overwhelming 89% of Europeans believing that animals should not be farmed in individual cages. Yet, despite a European Commission commitment in 2021 to implement it, it has failed to deliver.

Eloise Shavelar, our Global Head of Campaigns for Animal Welfare, said:

Millions of animals remain voiceless, confined in cages across Europe. But right now, we have a rare and urgent opportunity to speak for them. The European Commission’s public consultation is our chance to turn compassion into action.

We call on our dedicated supporters to respond to the consultation and send an unmistakable message to the European Commission: we need to End the Cage Age.

In the coming weeks we will share some top arguments to be used in the consultation to tell the Commission that we need a ban on cages by 2026. Please put a 45-minute hold in your diary for November to get involved.

Supporters urged to raise voices for animals