2025 may be a wrapping up but because of your unwavering support there are some great opportunities to make a difference for UK farmed animals in 2026. As the year draws to a close, we reflect on our campaigns and successes that you’ve helped us to achieve.

A ban on cages in sight

In January, we joined forces with our wonderful Patron, Dame Joanna Lumley, to launch a parliamentary petition calling on the Government to end the use of cages for all UK farmed animals.

Every year in the UK, around 7 million laying hens spend most of their lives imprisoned in so-called ‘enriched’ cages where they have around the space of a sheet of A4 paper each. In addition, 150,000 mother pigs annually are confined in narrow crates when nursing their piglets.

With your support, the petition soared past the 10,000 signatures required to trigger a written response from the Government – securing over 20,000 signatures in the first 48 hours. And within three months reached the 100,000 signatures needed to and trigger a debate in Parliament in June.

To keep this topic on the Government’s agenda, in November we organised a Parliamentary reception in Westminster. The event was well attended with at least 50 cross-party Parliamentarians attending to show their support for the campaign to End the Cage Age for laying hens.

As an early Christmas present, just yesterday (22 December), Defra released the Animal Welfare Strategy which announced their intention to end the use of cages for both laying hens and mother pigs. This is a major step forward following decades of campaigning to end these cruel systems and we will be pressing the Government to ensure his very welcome policy comes to fruition.

Over 1 million voices call to end factory farming

In October we delivered 314,922 signatures to Defra demanding fairer farming future.

Dressed as farmed animals, our campaigners stood resolute outside Defra’s offices in London, holding images of what the future of farming should look like – livestock in higher welfare systems free to move around in open spaces and examples of regenerative agriculture.

This followed a global hand in when we took our message to the United Nations in New York, submitting over 1 million signatures from supporters across 242 countries and regions. Our call was clear: world leaders must act now to transform our broken food system.

Many of our dedicated High Profile Supporters added their names to the petition including Dragons’ Den investor and businesswoman, Deborah Meaden and actress Kate Ford.

Report reveals food waste scandal

Also in October, on World Food Day (16 October), we released a groundbreaking new report exposing the world’s biggest cause of food waste - factory farming. Our report, Food not Feed: How to stop the world’s biggest form of food waste, estimates that phasing out the use of grain as feed would free up at least 790,000 hectares of land in the UK – equating to more than all of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk combined. This could feed an extra 16.5 million people in the UK each year.

We’re asking supporters to sign an open letter to the UK Prime Minister calling on a future where food nourishes people, not factory farms. The letter already has the backing of many public figures and experts including NHS doctor and broadcaster, Dr Amir Khan and wildlife television presenter Megan McCubbin. We’ll be delivering the letter to number 10 Downing Street next year so watch this space!

Huge Demand for Honest Labelling

During the summer the UK Government published its long-awaited response to the fairer food labelling consultation, revealing overwhelming public support for clearer and more transparent UK-wide mandatory method of production food labelling.

The consultation, which ran in spring 2024, attracted over 31,000 responses from consumers, farmers, retailers, and advocacy groups. An astonishing 99% of individuals who responded backed mandatory labelling – highlighting the powerful public support for greater honesty on food labels.

Last week (16 December), alongside Humane World for Animals and The Animal Law Foundation, we organised a Parliamentary breakfast briefing hosted by Sarah Dyke MP. The event highlighted how misleading labelling is creating an unfair marketplace for higher welfare farmers. We called for transparency – through enforcement of existing laws and the introduction of mandatory honest labelling – to enable more informed buying choices that better support higher welfare farming standards and help improve the lives of millions of farmed animals. The reception was attended by around 60 MPs and supported by ‘Motherland’ actress Diane Morgan, who also spoke at the event.

Disappointingly, a commitment to introduce mandatory method of production labelling was missing from the Animal Welfare Strategy, but in a positive move the Defra Secretary of State, Emma Reynolds MP announced in Parliament (18 December) that the Government will continue to work on labelling separately. We will continue to call for this to give consumers much needed clarity on how animals in the food system are reared.

Turning up the pressure on trade

The UK has banned a number of cruel farming practices, such as barren battery cages for hens, using antibiotics as growth promoters, and sow stalls for mother pigs – but practices like these are still legal elsewhere. We’re calling on the Government to ensure it isn’t outsourcing suffering overseas, undermining higher welfare UK farmers that could be undercut by lower animal welfare standard imports.

We have seen some fantastic coverage of our messages on trade deals and the impacts for farmed animal welfare in the media. We’ve been quoted on the topic in the Daily Express and BBC Online, and a Letter to Editor, penned by our wonderful patron Deborah Meaden was published in The Telegraph. In addition, we launched a joint report with Animal Policy International and the RSPCA – Closing the Welfare Gap: Why the UK Must Apply Its Animal Protection Standards to Imports – at a Parliamentary reception this spring. The report gained reach in The Mirror and several trade publications including The Grocer.

There are some promising signs. The Government’s Trade Strategy recognises the ‘concerns’ about imports of eggs from hens confined in battery cages and pork products produced using sow stalls (both banned in here the UK). The UK trade deal with India won’t have tariff reductions on pork, chicken or egg imports to the UK. And when it comes to the deal secured with the US, the UK Government has re-affirmed that imports of hormone treated beef and chlorinated chicken won’t be allowed. In the new year, we’ll continued to keep this on the political agenda and call on the UK Government not to allow lower welfare imports to be part of any future trade deals.

Campaigning against Brittany Ferries ‘Cruel Cargo’

In June and September, we gathered outside Brittany Ferries headquarters in Portsmouth to call on the company to reverse its appalling decision to resume live exports of farmed animals from Ireland to France.

Thirty years ago, Brittany Ferries were congratulated on their decision to stop carrying farmed animals, due to the suffering it causes. The company’s U-turn exposes thousands of animals every year to tremendous suffering once again.

In November, after months of campaigning and following over 200,000 emails from UK and EU supporters to the company, Brittany Ferries heard our calls to end live exports in a face-to-face meeting with our French team, Wellfarm and FOURPAWS. In this important first step, the company indicated that they were open to adjusting their practices and would even consider putting a stop to transporting unweaned calves. They have also agreed to a follow up meeting in January. This is all down to your relentless campaigning. Together we’ll keep up the pressure and won’t give up until live animal exports are confined to the history books.

Animal Welfare Strategy

After much anticipation, we warmly welcomed the UK Government’s Animal Welfare Strategy which was published yesterday (22 December). This is a significant step forward in protecting and improving the lives of animals across Britian. Key measures include consultations on:

Ending the use of cages for egg laying hens in the UK
Ending the use of farrowing crates for all UK mother pigs
Stopping the inhumane use of CO2 as a slaughter method for pigs

Introducing legislation to protect the welfare of fish at slaughter.

We will continue to campaign hard in 2026 to turn these commitments into much-needed policy changes as soon as possible.

A heartfelt thank you

Your support continues to be vital in overcoming challenges and making progress in the fight for farmed animals.

You can read about some of our 2025 international highlights in the latest blog from Philip Lymbery, our Global CEO.

Celebrating success for farmed animals in 2025