Dan Shannon
After 15 months of relentless pressure, Ahold Delhaize—the East Coast's biggest grocer—has committed to ending the extreme confinement of hens. This is your victory.
I've been doing this work for a long time. I've seen hard-fought campaigns, difficult setbacks, and genuine breakthroughs for animals. But our movement’s victory this week is one I’ll carry with me for a long time. Ahold Delhaize—the fourth largest grocer in the United States and the biggest supermarket chain on the entire East Coast—has officially committed to a total ban on the extreme confinement of hens.
That's right. The company behind Stop & Shop, Food Lion, Giant Food, The Giant Company, and Hannaford has publicly pledged to end the use of cruel battery cages in its supply chain, backed by concrete action steps, interim milestones, and annual public reporting. And beyond the ban itself, Ahold has committed to introducing clear signage in more than 2,000 stores—putting transparency front and center so that customers can make informed choices.
This is one of the most significant victories for caged hens in US history. And it belongs entirely to you.
A year and a half of not backing down
Over the last 15 months, a global coalition of animal protection organizations—with you at the center of it—built a campaign that simply could not be ignored. What you helped make happen is extraordinary.
100,000 GIF
That’s the number of messages that people like you sent directly to Ahold decision-makers. Over 100,000 messages on behalf of animals! And that was just the tip of the iceberg:
- Activists like you attended more than 100 protests staged across the country
- We published full-page ads in The Washington Post and local papers
- We sent airplane banners flying over the Boston Marathon
- Activists showed up at BBQ festivals, conferences, and golf tournaments
Across the United States and in the Netherlands, compassionate people like you spent weeks outside Ahold headquarters—in the rain, in the heat—with snare drums, vuvuzelas, and megaphones, making it impossible for executives to ignore the campaign. After a week of high-stakes negotiations, Ahold Delhaize finally did what was right.
Why this matters—and who it’s for
As we celebrate this progress, I want to take a moment to emphasize what this win means for the animals at the center of it.
A hen confined in a battery cage lives in a space roughly the size of a sheet of paper. She cannot spread her wings. She cannot dust-bathe, perch, or engage in any of the natural behaviors that matter to her. The physical toll is hard to fathom: weakened bones, chronic stress, and a life defined by immobility and suffering. And the psychological toll breaks my heart to think about.
There’s nothing complicated about this. It’s just cruelty that doesn't need to exist—and more and more people, whether they eat eggs or not, agree with that.
You and I share a conviction: that unnecessary suffering is wrong, full stop. And that conviction is exactly what powered this campaign.
The scale of what we’ve accomplished, together
This victory will spare approximately 5 million hens—as well as thousands of mother pigs—from intensive confinement in Ahold Delhaize's supply chain.
Ahold Delhaize serves 26 million customers every single week. The transparency commitments they've made—annual reporting, interim milestones, and clear in-store signage across 2,000+ locations—will change lives, and they will also set a new standard for what the entire US grocery industry should look like.
Even before we heard this news, it was a big week. Our Senior Director of Research & Insights shared that the percentage of hens living outside cages reached a new historic high in the United States: 47.7%. We are approaching the moment when the majority of hens in this country will never know the inside of a cage. You are the reason that number keeps climbing. There's a story that powerful corporations tell themselves—and try to tell us—that goes something like this: We're too big to change. The economics don't work. Consumers don't really care that much.
But when people care, when people stand together, when people refuse to look away, no system is too entrenched to change. This campaign demanded creativity, resilience, and an absolute refusal to accept a moral emergency as business as usual. You delivered all of that and more.
Onward for the animals
Now that Ahold Delhaize has stepped up, another giant is officially out of excuses. Unilever—the company behind Hellmann's mayonnaise—is one of the world's largest egg buyers, and hens in their supply chain are still waiting for the same commitment you just won from Ahold.
If you're ready to leverage this progress into another win, send a message to Unilever right now. We know this strategy works. This week’s victory just proved it.
And from the bottom of my heart, thank you for showing up, speaking out, and refusing to let animals be forgotten. This victory is yours.
