COLES will stop selling company branded pork, ham and bacon from pigs kept in crammed stalls as well as company branded caged eggs from January, meeting a commitment by the company to phase out the factory farming practices a year early.

The announcement comes as Animals Australia, the group that uncovered the cruelty to Australian cattle in Indonesian abattoirs last year, launches a campaign against the factory farming of animals.

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

The campaign, which features TV ads, pleads with consumers to use their purchasing power to end the trade. The ads show pigs and chickens in squalid conditions with some animals made to look like they are singing.

"The majority of pork, egg and chicken products on supermarket shelves come from factory farms where animals are severely confined, have no quality of life and are routinely subjected to surgical procedures without pain relief,'' the campaign director, Lyn White, said.