Pru Elliott
As customers demand more accountability from retailers, one is showing the others how it’s done.
Back in 2017, Marks & Spencer became the first retailer to commit to better treatment of chickens. Now, it’s leading the way to fulfil that promise, even earlier than expected, demonstrating its dedication to chicken welfare and showing other retailers that it can be done.
Chickens are the most common bird in the world, but we rarely see them.
They are locked away, behind closed doors, on factory farms.
Living in filthy, cramped conditions, bred to grow so much breast muscle, so fast, that they suffer from painful health conditions.
In their billions, they suffer every day. We can’t let it continue.
That’s why our campaign, Supermarkets Sell Suffering, focuses on getting retailers like Morrisons to commit to better for chickens.
Supermarkets are some of the biggest distributors of animal products. They play a big part in this ongoing animal abuse. By signing up to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), supermarkets can influence suppliers to treat chickens better.
But many are refusing. Morrisons’ latest marketing campaign, Make Good Things Happen, suggests the supermarket is ethical and family orientated.
Behind the advertising, Morrisons sources chicken suffering some of the worst kind of abuse, hoping its customers will never find out. Hoping they will never hear the stories of the chickens that have grown too grotesquely large to walk. The chickens that lie in their own waste day after day, burning their skin.
Supermarkets like Morrisons think that, by offering higher welfare ranges, the problem is solved. They don’t seem to care that they are still funding animal abuse.
We believe that, as a nation of animal lovers, no customer would knowingly choose products from animals experiencing this scale of suffering. We believe that retailers have a responsibility to ensure even their basic ranges meet welfare standards that their customers would accept.
We need supermarkets to fully commit to selling only chicken that meets the standards of the BCC.
It can be done. Marks & Spencer were the first retailer to sign up to the BCC, back in 2017. While it originally promised to make the change by 2026, the move has now been brought forward, demonstrating its commitment to better welfare. By Autumn next year, all of M&S’s fresh chicken will be sourced from suppliers that meet the standards of the BCC.
With M&S leading the way, it’s getting embarrassing for other supermarkets.
While veganism is on the rise, the world is not going to stop eating meat overnight. But each step towards the end of the abuse of animals raised for food is a positive one. We have a responsibility to them right now.
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