Food business ‘cartel of cruelty’ mass-abandon pledge to stop using Frankenchickens
Matthew Chalmers
Eight businesses owning 18 hospitality brands have mass-broken their promise to implement major improvements to chicken welfare, in a ‘victory for factory farming’.
These brands include popular outlets like Nando's, KFC, Wagamama and Burger King, all of whom are withdrawing from the Better Chicken Commitment, a policy designed by scientists to relieve the worst forms of suffering experienced by chickens raised for meat.
A crucial component of the policy is changing the breed of chicken from overbred, rapid-growing birds dubbed ‘Frankenchickens’ by campaigners, to more robust slower-growing birds, shown to dramatically improve the animals’ wellbeing.
Instead, these companies are setting up a new initiative called the Sustainable Chicken Forum (SCF), which does not require a change of breed and will rather focus on “balancing welfare improvements with environmental impact and consistent supply”.
Businesses should never be allowed to self-regulate, particularly in matters as vital as the treatment of sentient beings - it is foxes guarding the chicken coop. This cartel of cruelty have completely shirked their duty to animals, and are patting themselves on the back about it. This is a massive backslide for animal welfare, and a tragic victory for factory farming.
~ Claire Williams, Campaigns Manager at The Humane League UK
The Better Chicken Commitment was launched by ten animal welfare organisations in 2017 with KFC signing up in 2019, Nando’s in 2020 and Burger King in 2021 - all with an end of 2026 deadline. Despite the many intervening years, these companies did nothing to change the breed of their birds.
Chickens are the most farmed land animal in the UK, with 1.1 billion raised and killed for meat every year. Frankenchickens account for over 9 in 10 chickens raised for their meat in the UK. They are bred to grow extremely large, extremely quickly, growing from chick to slaughter weight in just 35 days on average. This unnatural growth rate maximises profit, but has severe welfare consequences including muscle diseases, bone deformities and burns from lying in their own waste.
That this is an unrivalled crisis in animal cruelty.
Want to help put a stop to cruelly-bred Frankenchickens? Sign our petition.
