Humane League UK challenging government over legality of fast-growing chickens.

UK High Court judges this week are hearing arguments by the Humane League UK in their Judicial Review regarding the legality of “Frankenchicken” after Lord Justice Singh last year said a full hearing regarding fast growing birds was in the public interest.

“Frankenchickens” are birds bred to grow faster and larger. They constitute around 90% of the chickens slaughtered each year in the UK. They reach maturity 12 weeks quicker and can be up to twice the size of a typical farmed bird, reaching its kill weight in only 35 days. As a result, the Humane Society UK argues that they: -

“…can suffer from a range of health and welfare issues, including heart attacks, lameness, green muscle disease, hock burns and organ failure.”

The Humane Society UK is challenging the practice on the basis that it breaches the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007, which finds its closest Hong Kong equivalent in Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance (Cap. 169). The former states that “Animals may only be kept for farming purposes if it can be reasonably be expected, on the basis of their genotype or phenotype, that they can be kept without any detrimental effect on their health and welfare.”

Edward Brown KC for the Humane League UK told the court that the practice, which allows producers to lower costs, was reviewed in an RSPCA report which “concludes that fast growing breeds cannot be kept without detrimental effects to their health and welfare” and that there were higher welfare and commercially viable options available options for producers.

Their case also challenges the “trigger system” – The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) monitoring system aimed at detecting welfare issues associated with conventional breeds of which the vast majority will be fast growing chicken breeds. The trigger system requires vets at abattoirs to report problems above a given threshold, which the Humane society argues is far too high.

Finally, the Humane Society argues that the system in place is creating unequal treatment between poultry producers which do comply with the law and those that don’t. This is due to the fact that the trigger system are unlikely to detect breaches, thus producers engaged in unlawful practices may benefit by placing cheaper chickens on the market and escape breaches.

There have been increasing calls for more humane practices in poultry farming. Retailers and firms, including Marks & Spencer, KFC, Joe & The Juice, have signed up to the Better Chicken Commitment, the international initiative to phase out the use of fast growing breeds. There have also been recommendations such as that by EFSA to improve animal welfare during transport which includes providing more space and lowering the temperature.

In Hong Kong, the SPCA has found that protection for such animals remain woefully lacking. In a 2010 review in which SPCA collaborated with Hong Kong University’s Law Faculty, it found that the welfare of most animals kept at local farms and sold at wet markets was inadequately protected, particularly chicken and pigs which are inadequately addressed. The SPCA additionally states that chickens in Hong Kong are farmed in battery farming systems that do not allow chickens the freedom for natural behaviour.

Courtesy of Claire Lai

Sources: The Guardian; Poultry World; The Humane League UK; EFSA; SPCA HK; Bloomberg