Despite Rondeel having been the first egg company to switch to the gentle upright method of catching hens in 2017, this time none of the birds were caught upright. The reason being that the large chicken-catching companies, such as Den Ouden in this case, refuse. They have been pressured by the umbrella poultry organization to no longer catch any birds in the Netherlands upright for fear that upright catching may become mandatory across the Netherlands and even Europe. It is their way of protesting this change. We are truly disappointed as Rondeel, like Kipster, were the only two large egg companies that had made the switch to upright catching, representing less than 1% of all egg production in the Netherlands, but at least giving consumers a choice to support upright catching. These companies were pioneers and run by farmers willing to pay for the extra costs upright catching incurred. Thank goodness smaller Demeter egg farmers are still catching their hens upright, often not dependent on large commercial catching companies under this intimidating pressure. We are truly disappointed by the actions of the chicken-catching organization that now, in a time of polarization and negativity, stopped such a positive project.
