The Five Freedoms Ignored:
Eight-8-Ate Holdings and Conti's
Cruelty exposed
This photo is representative of the standard industrial farming practices permitted in the company’s supply chain.Photo: Stefano Belacchi / Animal Welfare Observatory / We Animals
Crystal Jacinto is the Owner and Deputy Chairman of Eight-8-Ate Holdings and Conti’s Bakeshop and Restaurant, one of the most influential names in the Filipino food industry.
She also serves as Beauty & Wellness Advisor and Ultimate Health & Wellness Partner for Miss Universe Philippines, supporting delegates, events, and promotions under the Miss Universe banner.
With that power and public platform comes responsibility — not just to shareholders or pageant partners, but to the living beings who suffer every single day to keep Eight-8-Ate Holdings’ supply chain running.
And Crystal Jacinto and Miss Universe know.
Know that animals in Eight-8-Ate Holdings’ supply chain are trapped in tiny cages, denied the ability to express natural behaviours, and left to endure a lifetime of confinement — all so the company can keep costs low.
Know that many Conti’s competitors have already moved forward to cage-free systems.
Know that the same practices deemed unacceptable in many parts of the world continue under her company’s watch.
While Crystal Jacinto holds a prominent wellness and beauty role with Miss Universe Philippines, her company continues to allow battery cages in its egg supply chain. The contrast is stark: promoting health, beauty, and empowerment on one side, while permitting severe animal suffering on the other.
What Crystal Jacinto decides matters.
A single executive decision could end some of the worst suffering in industrial farming — suffering that’s been documented, condemned, and condemned again. But instead of action, we get empty statements. Instead of change, we get delay. Instead of leadership, we get complicity.
This isn’t about perfection.
It’s about decency.
And decency is a choice.
It’s time for Crystal Jacinto to make the right one.
Behind the eggs served by Conti’s lies a grim reality of suffering.
Hens are crammed into tiny, barren battery cages so restrictive that the birds can’t spread their wings, turn around, or exhibit any of their natural behaviors. These sentient animals are reduced to mere egg-laying machines, enduring a lifetime of misery standing on wire floors that can cut into their feet and leave their bodies bruised and featherless. Packed so tightly, hens often injure each other out of stress and frustration.
Even the basics of life are denied. With no access to dust bathing, perches, or fresh air, these intelligent and curious animals are trapped in a world devoid of stimulation and comfort.
The stress and overcrowding can lead to severe health issues, including brittle bones that fracture easily and uterine prolapse from the relentless egg production. Many hens die in their cages, their decomposing bodies left among the living until workers remove them. In this system, nearly every one of the Five Freedoms is breached: hens are denied freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury, and disease, freedom to express normal behavior, and freedom from fear and distress.
Yet Conti’s permits its suppliers to continue using these barbaric systems.
Crystal Jacinto, Conti’s and Eight-8-Ate Holdings have the power and responsibility to stop permitting these extreme cruelties in Conti’s supply chain. The public expects better, and animals deserve to live free from this egregious and unnecessary suffering.
It’s time for Conti’s and Eight-8-Ate Holdings to do what many other leading food companies have already done and put policies in place that ensure the Five Freedoms for animals in its supply chain.
