Nora Aufreiter: Kroger's Broken Cage-Free Promise Is Your Responsibility
Kroger once promised to eliminate cages from its egg supply chain by 2025, but it abandoned that commitment. Today, the company has no roadmap for becoming 100% cage-free, leaving approximately 19.5 million hens every year confined to barren wire cages where they cannot spread their wings, perch, dust bathe, or engage in other natural behaviors.
Walking away from this commitment represents more than a missed deadline. It reflects a lack of leadership and accountability from those responsible for overseeing Kroger's direction.
As Chair of the Public Responsibilities Committee, it is Nora Aufreiter's duty to ensure Kroger lives up to its commitments to animals and the public. Instead of driving meaningful progress, she has allowed the company to move forward without a credible plan to end the use of battery cages.
The cruelty of battery cages is so widely recognized that they have been prohibited throughout the European Union and banned in a growing number of U.S. states. Nevertheless, Kroger continues to source eggs from caged hens while other major retailers are advancing toward cage-free supply chains and meet consumer's evolving expectations.
Nora Aufreiter has a choice to make. Continuing without a clear transition plan means allowing millions of animals to remain in extreme confinement, weakening public confidence, and further eroding the company's reputation.
It's time for the company's leadership to deliver a real, time-bound plan to eliminate cages from its supply chain—not more failed commitments, not more empty promises.
Add your name to call on Nora Aufreiter and Kroger's Board of Directors to finally put an end to cage cruelty.
Dear [send:full_name] ,
As Chair of Kroger's Public Responsibilities Committee, you are entrusted with helping ensure the company acts in accordance with its ethical commitments. Yet Kroger has abandoned its pledge to eliminate cages from its egg supply chain by 2025 and has failed to replace it with a credible path forward. As a result, millions of hens remain confined to barren wire cages, enduring needless suffering year after year.
Walking away from a public commitment is not simply a change in corporate strategy. It undermines the trust consumers place in Kroger and calls into question the company's stated commitment to responsible animal welfare practices.
With your leadership, the Public Responsibilities Committee has the opportunity—and duty—to ensure Kroger does better. Yet today, the company continues to sell eggs from battery cages at its U.S. brands, even though these cruel systems have been banned in many of the states you do business in.
Kroger has stated that its approach to animal welfare is guided by the internationally recognized Five Freedoms and Five Domains. Yet the hens in its supply chain remain unable to perform even their most basic natural behaviors, including spreading their wings, nesting, and dust bathing. Empty promises and abandoned policies don't reduce suffering; they allow it to continue.
As Chair of the Public Responsibilities Committee, you have the chance to set a new tone of accountability and ensure the company delivers on its commitments. Kroger cannot continue to brand itself as a responsible retailer while keeping hens confined in cages for years on end.
It's time for decisive leadership. Public commitments require public accountability. End the delays. End the excuses. End the cages.
[Comment]
Signed,
[First Name] [Last Name]
