Celebrities Team Up With The Humane League To Turn World Egg Day Into World Hen Day

The Humane League, a global nonprofit that exists to end the abuse of animals raised for food, teams up with actors William Janowitz and Raine Michaels to establish World Hen Day in place of World Egg Day, an egg industry-established holiday celebrated around the world on the second Friday in October each year. Celebrities aim to bring attention to the daily suffering that egg-laying hens experience every day on factory farms at the hands of the egg industry.

In 2023, the egg industry’s celebration of #WorldEggDay garnered 129 million impressions on social media, all while the sector prioritized profit and subjected billions of hens around the world to cruel and archaic conditions. Increased consumer concern about the treatment of chickens in cramped, wire cages, with no room to even spread their wings has led to collective efforts to hold corporations and governments accountable to higher animal welfare. Consumers around the world are currently urging food companies, including Subway, Hardee’s, Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, and Krystal to report public progress on their cage-free commitments.

Quote from Raine Michaels, actress and model: “As a dog mom, it breaks my heart to see hens who are beautiful, intelligent, and emotional creatures that form lifelong bonds and love unconditionally just like dogs do, be subjected to the torture that inevitably comes with factory farming. On this #WorldHenDay I would like to show my support for a cage-free future for all Hens.”

Quote from William Janowitz, actor and writer: “As a male, if I were born as a chick today in the hands of the egg industry, I’d be killed within just a few hours of my birth. Every year, it’s completely standard for egg producers to shred male baby chicks alive—7 billion worldwide—since they can’t be used for profit for their eggs so they’re seen as a byproduct. That’s pretty wild. For some reason, we just accept it and let the industry get away with whatever they want.”

Quote from Blake Moynes, TV personality of “The Bachelor” franchise: “The industry has a great way of pretending like they’re bringing people together around eggs. Instead, they’re bringing people together around suffering. Hens raised in factory farms today are forced to trample on top of one another within archaic metal cages no bigger than the size of an iPad. The industry prevents them from exhibiting any of the natural behaviors that support their well-being. It’s time we stop patting the industry on the back and allowing them to cloud our judgment.”

Quote from Vicky Bond, President and Animal Welfare Scientist, The Humane League: “The egg industry claims that it has ‘united’ people around the egg. In reality, they’re tricking people into thinking the egg is natural, cruelty-free, and ethical to take from the hen when that couldn’t be further from the truth. As one essential step forward, we’re working with food companies around the world to remove egg laying-hens from cages. Animals deserve better and it’s critical that we fix our broken food system.”

Alongside the Open Wing Alliance, The Humane League has secured over 2,600 public commitments from food companies around the world to remove hens from cages. Eleven U.S. states passed laws to ban the production and/or sale of eggs raised from hens in cages, the European Parliament voted to support a ban on cages, and numerous countries have banned them entirely, including Austria, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.

Following the release of the Cage-Free Eggspose and the Cage-Free Fulfillment Report, consumers around the world are urging food companies, including Subway, Hardee’s (CKE Restaurants), Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, and Krystal—the majority of which have fast-approaching deadlines of 2025 or 2026.

To learn more about The Humane League, please visit TheHumaneLeague.org. Join celebrities in taking action for animals on #WorldHenDay by visiting FastActionNetwork.com.