Attempt to ban fast-bred chicken hits High Court
CHEAP chicken from fast-growing breeds could disappear from our supermarket shelves if a legal challenge to ban it on welfare grounds succeeds.
The Humane League has been granted a court hearing to challenge the Government over the legality in England over what it calls Franken chickens.
Law firm Advocates For Animals has brought the case on behalf of the charity which argues the use of breeds which grow unnaturally fast and large breaches law. In the UK animals can only be farmed if “they can be kept without any detrimental effect on their health or welfare”.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – the defendant in the case – argues that it has no policy that condones or permits the use of fastgrowing chickens.
About 90% of chickens raised annually for meat in the UK are from these fastgrowing breeds that can gain up to 100g a day. Research suggests up to a third struggle to walk and many suffer horrific injuries and illness.
They are then slaughtered at around 35 days old to help feed the UK’s billion chickens-a-year habit. Last year, the Mirror revealed how chickens reared for Morrisons spend the last days of their miserable, short lives in “extreme” pain packed in overcrowded farms.
Claire Williams, campaigns manager at The Humane League UK, said: “This is a big milestone for our case, and will hopefully further the cause of animal welfare across the country.
“We have beaten the odds to present the horrific lives of fast-growing chickens to the High Court in full, and will strongly make the case that keeping these birds is wholly unlawful. These animals have suffering coded into their DNA, and we hope the justice system will rightly condemn that.”
Charities want food companies to commit to ending the use of fast-growing Franken-chickens by signing up to the Better Chicken Commitment, which demands slower-growing breeds, more space, natural light and enrichment, less painful slaughter methods and thirdparty auditing.
KFC, Nando’s, Greggs, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose are among those in the UK who have joined so far.
These breeds can be made to put on up to 100g in weight per day