Betreff: The ‘End the Cage Age’ European Citizens’ Initiative needs your voice

Dear Member of the European Parliament,

Ahead of the upcoming European Parliament Hearing of the ‘End the Cage Age’ European Citizens’ Initiative, scheduled for 15 April 2021, I ask you to support an end to the use of cages in animal farming.

Together with 1.4 million people across the EU who signed the ‘End the Cage Age’ European Citizens’ Initiative, I call on you to spare the unnecessary suffering of the hundreds of millions of farmed animals across the EU, who still spend all or part of their lives in cages, pens or stalls.

Even in ‘enriched’ cages, egg-laying hens have only the space of about an A4 sheet of paper, which does not allow them to perform basic needs such as dustbathing and wing-flapping. Rabbits raised for meat are sometimes unable to stretch up or out fully and generally do not have enough space to perform a single hop. Almost all adult female pigs spend nearly half of every year inside crates, in which they cannot even turn around.

In February this year, over 140 renowned scientists, including Dr. Jane Goodall, called on the EU to ban cages. About a month later, major food producers and retailers confirmed that a cage-free future is possible and called on the EU to act.

It is about time for the EU to enter the 21st Century and ban the outdated practice of caging animals. You now have a chance to add your voice to the 1.4 million people across the EU who call for an end to caged farming.

I thus call on you, as a directly elected representative of the European people, to call for an end to this cruelty during the European Parliament Hearing of the ‘End the Cage Age’ European Citizens’ Initiative on 15 April.

Yours sincerely,

[name of sender]