Success: Hilton Goes Cage-Free • Albert Schweitzer Foundation

Less than 24 hours after the start of the international campaign against Hilton, we can already announce our success: The company has pledged to stop using cage eggs worldwide in the future.

Transition by 2025

In an official statement, Hilton declares that it will switch to alternative farming methods for laying hens by 2025. At first glance, this deadline may seem long. It is realistic, however, because in many countries of the world it is still difficult to obtain cage-free eggs and egg products.

With over 5,600 hotels in 113 countries, Hilton is one of the largest hotel chains in the world. So far, the company has only agreed to switch to alternative husbandry methods for some of its brands in 19 countries. The commitment now published includes all other brands and all countries in which Hilton operates hotels.

Best Western Follows after Six Weeks of Campaigning

We are delighted that Hilton has responded so quickly to our campaign by presenting a clear, binding date for phasing out its use of cage eggs. The company follows hotel chains such as Marriott, Hyatt and InterContinental who have also committed themselves to no longer support the caging of laying hens.

Best Western was a little harder to convince. They resisted an international campaign of the Open Wing Alliance, which we and around 60 other animal welfare and animal rights organisations are a part of, for 43 days. But finally the hotel chain pledged to go cage-free globally by 2025.

Actions in Warsaw

To kick off the campaigns against Hilton and Best Western, we worked together with over 80 activists from a total of 40 countries to create a powerful visual campaign. In Warsaw, we demonstrated in front of the hotels of both companies: The scene of a pageboy serving a cage egg on a tray while being watched by an oversized chicken was closely observed by hotel guests and passers-by. Shortly after the start of the campaign, hotel managers from Hilton approached the activists. The subsequent negotiations between the Open Wing Alliance and the corporate headquarters in the USA led to Hilton releasing its worldwide cage-free policy that same night.

We would like to thank everyone who signed our petition. Special thanks go to the local activists in Warsaw and the people who supported the campaign in social media. In our slideshow you can see photos of the campaign: