Marriott International continues to prolong the suffering of millions of chickens that are exploited in cages and their time is running out. almost four months ago, Animal Equality launched an international campaign to demand that the hotel chain report on the public commitment it made in 2018 to stop supplying eggs from that system of extreme confinement. To this day, the company continues without offering answers, progress or information on whether or not it is complying with its policy to not perpetuate or further encourage this cruel practice.
During this time, in Mexico, Brazil, the United States, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Italy, the organization has held information events, protests, and digital actions to showcase Marriott’s lack of commitment. In our country, we have carried them out in the most emblematic hotels that the chain has in Mexico City and Jalisco, which have been joined by activists and volunteers concerned about the suffering of chickens, which are often forgotten within the systems of animal exploitation for human consumption.
In Mexico alone there are more than 130 million chickens in cages. That means that 9 out of 10 are confined in spaces as tiny as a sheet of paper for each one of them, where they will spend every minute and every day of their lives, until they slow down their egg production rate and are sent to the slaughterhouse, which happens approximately after two years of exploitation.
Without mobility, they will barely have room to turn around, extremely limiting the behaviors typical of their species, such as spreading their wings, dust bathing, exploring, socializing and forming groups. On the other hand, confinement will cause diseases and deformities in their bodies, always standing on metal bars. They will also develop serious stress that will lead them to attack each other, causing wounds that will never receive veterinary attention.
As if these conditions were not deplorable enough, the industry will also subject them to forced fasting or forced pelecha, in which they will deprive them of food and water for up to seven days. During the molt, the hens stop laying eggs, but they accelerate a new production cycle so that they can be used for longer to generate more income for the producer. At the end of this practice, the hens lose between 24 and 30 percent of their weight but resume laying an acceptable quantity of eggs for the industry. This second cycle is carried out in hens that are between 68 to 70 weeks old, just under a year and a half, and have already been living in a cage for a year or more.
This practice has been duly documented by Animal Equality in investigations such as “Life in a cage” and “Pelecha: the cruel fast of caged chickens”, in which we exhibited how the industry exploits up to six chickens per cage, and we witnessed dead chickens inside them and their corpses in a state of putrefaction and some that wander among their waste or dying without any type of attention from the staff.
All of this is what hundreds of us fight against every day and what Marriott continues to perpetuate with its indifference and disregard for animal suffering. In total, almost seven years of empty promises from the hotel chain have passed. Added to this is a factor that will define its credibility with its consumers and society in general: there are just under three months left until 2025 ends, the year that the same company set as a goal to complete its transition to a cage-free egg supply. Marriott’s credibility hangs by a thread and it is against the clock. How will one of the largest hotel chains in the world respond to this requirement that other companies are meeting?
Ending cages in the egg industry is a huge step towards ending animal suffering. It is not the end of their exploitation, but it is the difference between spending a lifetime of misery and spending one where cruelty is not the norm every minute. Of course, we can always choose plant-based options and respectful of all animals.