This year, we stepped up the campaign to protect your historic victory against caged farming in the European Union (EU).

After the European Commission announced, in June 2021, that it would propose legislation to phase out caged farming for 300 million animals across 27 countries each year, the factory farming industry began intense lobbying against a cage ban.

So, we commissioned a report that showed farmers could get funding to move away from cages. And, in the summer of 2022, we released a shocking new investigation into the suffering of caged pigs to build public pressure against this cruelty.

With your support, we intensified our national campaigns to End the Cage Age:

• Compassion in World Farming France took the lead in joint legal action prompted by a political U-turn on pledges against caged farming.
• Compassion in World Farming Italia united with other influential NGOs to persuade the national Government to back an EU-wide cage ban.
• And, following a 109,000-signature petition calling for the United Kingdom (UK) to follow the EU’s lead, the UK Government confirmed it will launch a consultation on banning cages for hens.

In January 2022, we celebrated the enactment of California’s “Proposition 12,” banning the production and sale of food from caged animals. And we challenged US pork producers’ claim that the law is unconstitutional in the US Supreme Court.

Early in 2022, a 900,000-signature petition led by Compassion in World Farming, Four Paws, and WeMove brought the huge citizen movement against live animal exports to the forefront of animal welfare policy reviews.

Then, over 130 organizations across 45 countries united for Ban Live Exports: International Awareness Day. And, in the UK, a Great British live export ban remains in the cards after the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was carried over to the current Parliamentary session.

Meanwhile, the European Commission is re-examining EU live transport rules, and Members of the European Parliament can be in no doubt that their electorate demands an end to this cruel, needless trade.

On January 28, 2022, new EU legislation—that you helped secure—came into force: It’s now illegal for farmers to use antibiotics routinely to prevent disease in healthy groups of animals or to compensate for poor husbandry or hygiene. This represents major progress in the fight to stop vital medicines being misused to prop up unhealthy, inhumane factory farming.

In April, a five-year, hard-fought campaign led by Compassion in World Farming supporters achieved its goal: recognition in UK law that animals can experience pain, suffering, and joy.

The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act reinstates vital protection for animals that was lost after Brexit. It also goes further than EU legislation by establishing an independent Animal Sentience Committee to scrutinize Government policies.

The Act acknowledges the ability of vertebrate animals, plus lobsters, octopuses, and crabs, to think and feel—a huge breakthrough in the battle to protect their welfare.

Our groundbreaking report on octopus farming achieved a 2.5 billion potential reach in the media, and we stepped up pressure against plans for the world’s first commercial octopus farms in Spain and Hawaii.

And, with the European Commission reviewing farmed animal legislation, over 50,000 people have already signed our petition calling for stronger rules to protect the welfare of around 1 billion farmed fishes each year.