March 2018
As sentient beings, chickens have the capacity to feel pain and emotion. Intelligent, social and natural explorers, they learn about their environment from pecking objects and scratching the ground. Innately active, they run, perch and flap their wings. Cleanly, they like to dust bathe and preen their feathers.
Meat chickens - also known as broilers - still share these same behavioural drives as their wild ancestors, yet when it comes to broiler production these most basic of needs are not met for the vast majority. Today’s broilers can reach an average UK market weight of 2.2kg in just 35 days and this rapid growth can contribute to the most severe welfare problems seen in broilers - chronic leg disorders, heart problems and sudden death syndrome.
Birds can be kept in overcrowded conditions - each provided with less space than an A4 sheet of paper - unable to move easily or perform their natural behaviours, with many forced to sit in their own urine and faeces due to poor litter condition, which often results in painful hock burns. Wholly inadequate lighting, lack of environmental enrichment and live inversion and water bath stunning at slaughter, all contribute to the most wide scale animal welfare issue facing the world today.
With 6.5 billion chickens produced for meat across the EU and 62 billion worldwide, achieving the greatest meat yield in the shortest time continues to be a key requirement for the global customer. As we’ve seen, this comes at a great cost to the chicken.
To tackle these pressing issues a number of animal protection organisations have set out an EU broiler Ask, asking food suppliers to raise welfare standards for meat chickens. By 2026, we want food suppliers to meet our welfare requirements for 100% of the [fresh, frozen, and processed] chicken in their supply chain. Our RSPCA Assured label already meets this criteria. Already M&S and Knorr have committed to the Ask, which will improve the lives of 57 million and 102 million chickens each year in the UK and EU, respectively.
Through our collective campaigns, we’ll be bringing the consumer with us. As well as a concerted focus on broilers, the RSPCA campaigns with others for a better and more transparent method of production labelling on all meat and dairy products. This is an idea that DEFRA is consulting on as part of the Agriculture Bill, along with animal welfare payments, as Michael Gove set out in his recent address at the NFU Farming Conference.
There are barriers to overcome - moving to slower growing breeds and the infrastructure afforded to space and lighting will be an initial cost outlay - but as demand for chicken increases and the population grows, infrastructure is likely to be an issue faced by farmers anyway. And what we’re calling for is nothing new. As our RSPCA Assured scheme proves, higher welfare can be delivered for chickens and we can work with suppliers to achieve this.
In much the same way as the demand for cage free eggs has improved the welfare of laying hens, we know that the consumer is key in creating this change for meat chickens. In our survey, 8 out of 10 people (86%) who buy chicken meat expect supermarkets to ensure all chicken meat they sell is farmed to higher welfare standards. If we can work in this more holistic way of transparency to the consumer, better availability and placement of higher welfare chicken in stores and rewarding farmers financially, we’ll achieve better outcomes for all.
Claire Williams
Campaigns Manager, RSPCA
Follow RSPCA on twitter: @RSPCA_Official and @RSPCA_PATeam
The opinions expressed in this blog are the author's and not necessarily those of the wider Link membership.
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