In a new episode of our podcast “Who will save Our Planet“, we talk to Peter Höffken who works for the animals’ rights organisation ‘Peta Germany e.V’ about the ‘End the Cage Age’ Initiative, current standards in keeping animals and possible changes for the future.
Sophia Stille // 16.03.2022
In our second podcast episode, we dive deeper into the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “End the Cage Age”. In an interview with Peter Höffken, who works for the animals’ rights organisation Peta Germany, we learn more about current standards on farming animals. We talk about why so many NGOs, including Peta, supported the ECI and current rules and regulations in EU agriculture.
The ‘End the cage age’ initiative was started by the british animals’ rights organisation “Compassion in World Farming”. As the title suggests, this initiative wants to stop cage farming in the whole European Union, which seems like a huge goal to reach. And indeed it is. According to EuroStat, the Statistics Agency of the European Union, there were 146 million pigs, 76 million Bovine animals (cattle) and 75 million sheep and goats farmed in the EU in 2020. Most of them are held for meat production or other commercial purposes, like milk or wool production. Often the animals live in small cages without enough space to move around and many of them will never see the sun during their lives. Agriculture in the EU has constantly become more efficient and there is high competition between farmers and large agricultural businesses – often at the expense of animal welfare.
Taking into account these factors, it is even more important that the initiative was so successful. More than 170 NGOs are supporting it and almost 1,4 million signatures were collected. In this episode, we talk about the current status quo in cage farming and which changes are realistic for the future. What is allowed in farming animals? What is common? How are the animals treated? And lastly, why did so many organisations sign the initiative, sending a sign that something in farming policies and regulations has to change?
We hope you enjoy this episode and learn a bit more about the ‘End the Cage Age’ initiative. If you are wondering what European Citizens’ Initiatives are, we suggest you to listen to our first episode of the podcast where we explain the mechanism in more detail. Otherwise, you can also find out more about the ‘End the Cage Age’ Initiative here.
Relevant Links:
- First Episode of the Podcast Who will save our planet?
- End the Cage Age: Success on the way to stop caged farming in the EU! • Our Only Home
- Eurostat: Agricultural production – livestock and meat – Statistics Explained (europa.eu)
- End the Cage Age Website
- Übersicht der Organisation PETA Deutschland e.V. (ouronlyhome.eu)
