Calls to raise minimum poultry meat welfare standards in UK

Improving the welfare of the UK’s broilers would cost UK consumers under £1/week, according to new research published by the Humane League.

The charity says a systemic raising of minimum standards in the form of the Better Chicken Commitment would cost a maximum of 94p per week for the average British consumer.

In its latest ‘State of the chicken industry – who’s selling your Frankenchickens?’ report, The Humane League said around 90% of the 1.1 billion chicken raised for meat are “subjected to intensive factory farming conditions”.

The charity has been backed by celebrity cook, author and food campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who said: “If supermarkets spearheaded the movement to stop using Frankenchickens, billions of animals could have better lives in the coming years. It would be a massive improvement to animal welfare in the UK, perhaps ever, and businesses could benefit as a result. We must ban the breed that has suffering built in – the status quo is cruel, wasteful and unjustifiable.”

The Humane League argues that minimum welfare standards should be lifted across the board by supermarkets by signing up to the BCC, especially as welfare labels can be confusing and misleading.

Aaron Parr, senior campaigner at The Humane League UK, said: “It is hard to imagine a worse life than a Frankenchicken. What should be a lively, curious bird has been transformed into an animal bred to suffer.

“With so much pressure on their tiny frames, these birds can collapse under their own weight and be forced to lie in their own waste, leaving them with painful lesions. Our plea to the public and supermarkets is to wake up. This is animal abuse, carried out against billions of birds right under our noses.”

The charity said YouGov polling, commissioned for the report, found that 3-quarters of people take into account animal welfare when shopping, but 74% of those who buy chicken meat products did not know what welfare standards different labels described.

A number of retailers, including Aldi, Tesco, Co-op, Morrison and Lidl, have announced they will give their chickens raised for meat more space but have not adopted many of the other BCC commitments.

Over 380 businesses in the UK and EU have committed to the BCC so far, including UK retailers Waitrose and Marks and Spencer.

The Humane League UK has a judicial review appeal case on the halting of the use of fast-growing broiler breeds in the UK. The hearing is set to take place in October.

The National Farmers’ Union has said it is vital food imports are produced to the same standards as those that British farmers are required to meet. It is calling for the introduction of a system of core standards for animal welfare and environmental impact.

Tags: UK, chicken, Broilers, standards, welfare