Think of the hens this Pancake Day

IT’S Pancake Day this week and I can’t wait to tuck into my all time favourite treat, rolled pancakes stuffed with chocolate ice-cream – not forgetting a sprinkling of sugar and a drizzle of lemon of course.

But as well as considering whether to go savoury or sweet this year, I ask your readers to also think about the eggs that go into their pancake mix and, more importantly, the 36 million hens in the UK that do the important job of laying them.

More of us are choosing higher welfare barn and free-range eggs than ever before which is fantastic. But many people don’t realise that around half of all eggs laid in the UK still come from hens kept in cages, where they don’t have enough room to carry out many important natural behaviours like flapping their wings.

The good news is we can all do our bit to help by onl y choosing barn and free-range eggs, and preferably ones with the RSPCA’s Freedom Food label. This means the eggs have come from farms inspected to the RSPCA’s welfare standards.

So whatever you decide to fill your pancakes with on Shrove Tuesday, please help our hens by making your pancake a higher welfare one.

MIA FERNYHOUGH RSPCA welfare scientist

Southwater