SCARBOROUGH — Animal rights demonstrators descended upon Hannaford Supermarkets’ headquarters Monday, demanding increased urgency and transparency in the company’s transition to all cage-free eggs.

Organizers with California-based Mercy for Animals delivered a petition calling on the grocery chain and its parent company, Ahold Delhaize USA, to move more rapidly toward cage-free eggs after delaying a nearly decade-old promise to do so by the end of this year.

The parent company pledged in 2016 to sell only cage-free eggs by 2025. But it pushed back those deadlines late last year: it now aims to be 70% cage-free by 2030 and fully cage-free by 2032.

“Mercy for Animals has been calling on Hannaford since March of this year to accelerate their cage-free transition, we’ve been calling on them to increase their transparency,” said Maha Bazzi, the group’s director of animal welfare initiatives.

Bazzi said Ahold Delhaize has made some progress as a whole, but it’s not clear how far its individual brands, including Hannaford, have come. She said the group is asking Hannaford to publish an “incremental plan” with specific milestones.

“Because they’ve gone back on it now, we can’t trust anything,” said Leah Garces, the group’s chief executive. “We have to focus on them creating a plan, so that we can hold them accountable to something real.”

The pair joined state Rep. Dylan Pugh, D-Portland, in the company’s lobby, where they attempted to deliver a packet of more than 2,800 signatures to Hannaford leadership. A receptionist said no one was available to meet with them, but she promised to pass along the materials and request for a call to the company’s leadership.

In a written statement, Hannaford said the campaign is “part of a misguided effort” built on baseless accusations.

“Today, 100% of our stores offer cage-free egg options, and the majority of our assortment is already cage-free,” the company said. “We have detailed, year-by-year plans to meet our cage-free egg goals by 2030 and 2032, while navigating supply chain realities and regulatory requirements.”

By the time the petition group emerged around 11:45 a.m., about a dozen protesters had already taken to a swath of grass across the road. Those gathered blew whistles and carried signs bearing messages like “Hannaford Harms.”

Among them was Fairfield resident Mary Bradstreet, who chanted and cheered from an inflatable chicken costume. The 56-year-old has been involved with Mercy for Animals’ Hannaford campaign since the summer and said a groundswell around the cage issue has seemed to be growing “little by little” for months.

“The more people are educated, the better informed they are,” Fairfield said. “If they’re not informed, they have no free choice.”

‘WHAT HAPPENED TO HANNAFORD’

Monday’s protest came as the grocery chain and its parent company face heightened scrutiny over food quality, prices, and the treatment of animals and workers in its supply chain.

Signs questioning “What happened to Hannaford” have been popping up around the Greater Portland area for days, with similar advertisements appearing online. Those signs lead to a website operated by the New England Consumer Alliance, which describes itself as being “supported by” the Center for Responsible Food Business — a nonprofit based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, according to Internal Revenue Service records.

Taylor Warren, president of the center, said his group is not affiliated with Mercy for Animals, though their work often overlaps. Bazzi said the same.

Warren said the sign campaign is intended to spark conversations about Hannaford’s business practices — including animal and worker welfare, prices and food quality — but is not focused on any single issue.

“The goal here is to make a splash,” Warren said on a phone interview. “There’s no better way to start a conversation than everyone (waking) up with hundreds of yard signs, and leaflets and so forth.”

The signs and flyers were planted Thursday evening by team of about 15 volunteers, most of whom were local to Maine, Warren said. He called the New England Consumer Alliance a “community arm” of the larger, nationally minded group.

Warren said the campaign seemed to accomplish that goal, pointing to an outpouring of comments — some suspicious of the group’s underlying motives — as evidence.

Warren said his team plans to monitor responses from Hannaford and the local community and “see where it takes us.”

“I don’t think there’s actually like a key issue that Hannaford could do around its prices or quality,” Warren said. “We just kept getting caught up on these issues, so we want to push them forward and see where Hannaford can budge.”

The supermarket chain has also faced criticism in recent years for sourcing some of its milk from farms that activists claim have substandard labor conditions. It began a review of its dairy supply chain in the spring.