Brutal claim about one of the world's most popular meats in court challenge
Billions of fast-growing chickens are suffering severe health conditions, according to the RSPCA which has intervened in a court challenge in the UK.
Whether you’re dining out on a free range chook at a fancy restaurant or buying fast food wings, chances are you’re eating a specific breed of bird known as a broiler. It’s been developed for over a century to get big fast, and recent advancements mean it can reach slaughter weight in just four to six weeks.
That means by the time its deemed ready to be eaten, a fast-growing chicken still has baby blue eyes, and is likely to be cheeping rather than clucking or crowing. While that's great for producing cheap meat quickly, this development has led to a range of health issues in hens, and the RSPCA in Britain claims the birds don't “have a life worth living”.
“Nearly a billion chickens every year live short, painful lives as a result of being bred to grow so fast to produce the most meat in the shortest possible time. Consequently, the chickens often struggle to stand, develop lesions on their legs, suffer from heart defects and can even experience sudden death,” it said.
The UK RSPCA is taking court action against its government to try and ban the breed. It's a separate charity to those which bear the same name in Australia. Over here, broiler chickens can be certified with the RSPCA Approved Farming logo.
Related: Tiny number hidden on supermarket eggs: Do you know what it means?
RSPCA throws weight behind legal action against broiler hens
Chicken meat is popular around the globe, with environmentalist David Suzuki predicting when archeologists of the future dig through the soil to understand our civilisation they'll find layers of concrete and chicken bones.
In Australia, roughly 653 million chickens are slaughtered each year. Globally the number is estimated to be over 70 billion, and broiler hens are one of the most cost-effective breeds to produce because of their ability to quickly convert food into muscle. As a standard, most producers leave lights on for 17 and 20 hours, which prompts the birds to rest less and feed for longer, helping to make them a cheap form of protein.
On Wednesday (local time) the RSPCA will be intervening in legal action taken by the Humane League against the UK government, backing its claims the use of fast-growing broiler chickens is unlawful because it leads to health and welfare complications. It's a challenge in the Court of Appeal after the High Court rejected the charity’s legal challenge in May last year.
The action has been welcomed by farm welfare charity Compassion in World Farming which argues the breed is one of “factory farming’s worst abuse of animals”.
“Today’s broilers have been bred to grow so quickly that their legs, heart and circulatory system cannot keep pace with the rapidly growing body,” its chief policy adviser Peter Stevenson told Yahoo News Australia.
The UK RSPCA’s meat chicken expert Kate Parkes added, “It's really important to stress that slower-growing breeds, with significantly better health and welfare, are already available and commercially viable. Chickens reared under the RSPCA Assured scheme are all slower-growing breeds which shows that there's no excuse for subjecting fast-growing breeds to such misery.”
RSPCA Australia reveals stance on controversial chicken breed
Over here, it’s a different story, as RSPCA Australia continues to certify fast-growing broiler chickens under its Approved Farming Scheme if they meet its Approved Standard for Meat Chickens. It's a scheme that allows large chicken meat producers to use the charity’s logo if they pay a licensing fee. RSPCA officers then carry out “frequent” farm and abattoir visits to ensure conditions meet its welfare standards.
It acknowledged chickens genetically bred to grow fast can have “serious health and welfare issues”, it said it advocates for “improvements to meat chicken genetics in Australia and encourage genetic companies to continue selecting for pro-welfare traits”.
“While the current RSPCA Approved Standard for Meat Chickens helps address some of the welfare issues in meat chicken production, there are things that it doesn’t cover. Sometimes this is because an alternative is not yet available, sometimes it is not within the scope of the activities covered by the Standard, and sometimes it is something we are actively looking at for future reviews of the Standard,” it told Yahoo News.
What chicken welfare issues is RSPCA Australia concerned about?
RSPCA Australia said its not-for-profit Scheme is about “lifting the bar for animal welfare”.
“Over the past several years, through targeting specific areas such as lighting, perching, litter provision and management practices, the RSPCA Approved Farming Scheme has been able to have a positive impact for the lives of meat chickens in Australia,” it said.
The charity has several other issues in its sights including:
A reduction of the maximum stocking density allowance.
Providing them with “optimal space requirements” in “each type of housing system”.
Legal minimum requirements for adequate ventilation to maintain air quality.
Lighting controls that give chickens adequate rest time.
Changes to slaughter regulations.
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