KFC expansion could add 10.5 million years of animal suffering annually, report warns

The estimate is based on methodology from the Welfare Footprint Institute, which measures the cumulative duration and severity of animal suffering, as well as estimates of the number of chickens in KFC’s supply chain.

The Humane League UK also found that:

• KFC’s expansion could almost double the size of the UK’s fried chicken industry
• It would lead to the use of well over a tonne of antibiotics each year, raising concerns about antimicrobial resistance which threatens human health.
• Fried chicken chains are increasingly reliant on younger consumers, who visit more than twice as often as the national average.

The Humane League UK is calling on fried chicken giants Popeyes and KFC to reinstate their pledge to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), a higher-welfare standard for chickens which includes switching to healthier slower-growing breeds.

Cordelia Britton, Head of Programs at The Humane League UK, said: “Yum Brands’ plans to expand KFC UK are disastrous. They would plunge tens of millions more chickens into suffering every year, bred to grow so fast their bodies cannot cope. At a time when rivers are polluted and antibiotic resistance is rising, doubling down on this model is bad for everyone. It’s time to end cruel overbreeding and commit to higher welfare.”

Fast-growing chicken breeds, dubbed Frankenchickens by campaigners, dominate the fried chicken industry. Bred for rapid growth, they suffer high rates of lameness, organ failure and burns from prolonged contact with their own excrement.

They also require around nine times more antibiotics than slower-growing birds, promoting the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Only Dave’s Hot Chicken, run by the Azzurri Group, is currently committed to the BCC, after KFC and Popeyes broke their pledge to join the industry-led, pro-Frankenchicken Sustainable Chicken Forum. A group of eight hospitality companies, all previously committed to the BCC, created this industry led body back in March, which defends the use of Frankenchickens.

Chickens are the most farmed land animal in the UK, with 1.1 billion raised and killed for meat every year.

With the fried chicken sector among the fastest-growing in UK food, the report warns that animal suffering will rise sharply unless companies change course.