Anti-cruelty organisation moves to change UK law on carrying chickens

The UK’s Animal Welfare Committee (AWC) has made recommendations with regards to the proposal to legalise carrying chickens by their legs.

However, animal anticruelty campaigners said these proposals represented an unacceptable dilution of animal welfare standards.

The AWC, a government organisation, said it made the recommendation even though it acknowledged it to be a process that can cause “pain, discomfort and breathing difficulty”, leading to distress and injuries such as fractures and dislocations.

The committee said the proposal was for the retained European Transport Regulation 1/2005, which prohibits lifting chickens by their legs on farms and during loading and unloading, to be amended for a period of five years. The proposal is for people to be legally permitted to lift chickens and turkeys weighing less than 10kg by their legs.

The Animal Law Foundation said this was the first open suggestion of removing animal welfare protection standards since the UK left the EU in 2020. “This is despite the fact the government not only made promises not to dilute standards, [but] claimed that the UK would use its freedom to improve welfare standards. The current illegal and inhumane handling of chickens in the UK is a stark reminder of the need to prioritise animal welfare in our society,” it said.

The AWC said a time period was needed to allow data on the relationship between carrying methods and welfare outcomes to be gathered and analysed and for different methods to be examined and trialled.

Other animal welfare organisations said despite it being illegal to carry chickens by the legs, there were a number of farmers who did so. –

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS The law regarding carrying chickens and turkeys by their legs is being reviewed in the UK.