Furnished (enriched) cages were introduced as a welfare improvement over battery cages, but their welfare adequacy remains contested.
Furnished cages represent a welfare improvement over conventional battery cages while remaining significantly below what free-range or barn systems can provide for hens with good management. The key welfare constraints — limited space, restriction of ranging and foraging behaviour, inability to fully express dust bathing — remain even with furnishing. Welfare assessment must be honest about what furnished cage systems can and cannot provide. For consumers seeking to improve welfare through purchasing, cage-free systems with genuine enrichment provision offer meaningfully better welfare. The ongoing debate about furnished cages should be anchored in behaviour science rather than industry claims or absolutist positions.