East Lancashire shoppers are being urged to ask their local supermarkets to sign up to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) to improve chickens’ lives.
Over one billion chickens are slaughtered for meat in the UK every year so the RSCPA has launched a Better Chicken campaign to improve to meet the growing consumer demand for higher welfare products.
The campaign aims to urge shoppers and help supermarkets meet the BCC’s minimum broiler asks by 2026 which means providing meat chickens with more space, light and enrichment and ensuring they only use slower-growing breeds.
This comes after a High Court legal challenge over the use of fast-growing chicken breeds, which often suffer from heart defects, lameness and even sudden death.
‘Deeply disappointed’ that the challenge was dismissed, the RSPCA described it as a ‘huge missed opportunity to address the biggest issue for animal welfare in the country.’
Emily Harris, campaigns manager at the RSPCA, said: “Last week’s ruling shows there is a real disconnect between what the legal system and lawmakers think is acceptable compared to what the public thinks is acceptable when it comes to animal welfare.
“We know that 87 per cent of the public expect supermarkets to ensure that all chicken meat they sell is farmed to higher welfare standards – even higher than the 86 per cent of people who agreed with this back in 2018, showing that this is an issue the public has consistently cared about for many years.”
Last week, 96 per cent of the 32,000 Co-op members voted for the shop to adopt the Better Chicken Commitment, but the supermarket’s directors overruled this vote.
Aldi, Asda, Iceland, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Tesco are also yet to make the commitment. However, M&S and Waitrose have made the pledge.
Emily added: “The RSPCA and our colleagues at RSPCA Assured work closely with retailers and so we wanted to create a helpful guide to make it as easy as possible for them to sign-up to the Better Chicken Commitment and improve animal welfare on a massive scale, meeting the desires of their customers.
“But we cannot do that without the people of Lancashire’s support so we’re urging everyone to harness your purchasing power and tell supermarkets directly that we want to see higher welfare chicken on supermarket shelves.”
The BCC sets out requirements to improve the welfare of broiler chickens in the food industry and also advocates against the use of cages or multi-tier systems and promotes more humane methods of slaughter.
Kate Parkes, RSPCA poultry expert, said: “Due to the sheer scale of suffering involved with meat chickens, this is arguably one of the biggest animal welfare issues facing our nation today.
“Our Eat. Sit. Suffer. Repeat: The life of a typical meat chicken report looked at the health and welfare outcomes for these fast-growing chickens and found that they fundamentally did not have a life worth living.
“We know consumers don’t want to fund this cruelty – but still too few supermarkets have signed up to the Better Chicken Commitment to make a difference.”
Shoppers can support the Better Chicken campaign and lobby supermarkets by visiting here.