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An animal welfare organisation is preparing to deliver a 36,000 signature-strong petition to parliament for a blanket ban on all caged eggs.
Battery hen cages have been banned since January but SAFE wants colony cages outlawed too.
SAFE campaign manager Emma Brodie told Checkpoint battery cages were "tiny", held five hens and were "completely barren".
Colony cages are much larger, Brodie said, and have added "enrichments", including metal perches, a scratch pad and one nesting area per cage for the hens.
But they were not any better, she said.
" it doesn’t address the welfare issues that are inherent to any cage farming system" - SAFE campaign manager Emma Brodie
"In a colony system, there are around 60 birds in each cage so 60 birds are competing to access those enrichments, competing to access food and water.
"It’s an incredibly stressful living environment for them and because it’s still so overcrowded, it doesn’t address the welfare issues that are inherent to any cage farming system.”
Brodie said SAFE wanted colony cages banned as well as they were just as overcrowded and harmful to the welfare of hens.
New Zealand's animal welfare laws stated that animal must have the opportunity to display normal patterns of behaviours - something that was "impossible for hens confined in a colony cage".
She disputed it was the ban on battery cages that had driven up the costs of eggs.
Brodie said all food prices had increased and there were a lot of factors at play - including the war on Ukraine.
“We understand people’s concerns, but actually all major supermarkets have already committed to being cage free within the next few years, as well as most major food service groups, so phasing out colony cages shouldn’t actually affect supply to major supermarkets."
SAFE's petition had garnered 36,000 signatures, Brodie said, showing that New Zealanders "overwhelmingly" wanted to see hens live a better life in New Zealand.
With regard to prices increasing as a result, she told Checkpoint most New Zealanders were already paying for what they perceived to be better welfare products by choosing free-range eggs, for example.
Brodie said SAFE was looking to the government to step up, take the welfare of hens seriously and "ban cages once and for all".
“We’ve got an international reputation to uphold for good animal welfare so this should be a no-brainer."
In 2021, Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor told RNZ the government had no plans to ban colony cages at this stage.
The code of welfare for layer hens was developed by the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee and took into account international best practice, O'Connor said.