We’ve been at the Courts of Justice once again.

Frankenchickens make up around 90% of the 1.1 billion chickens slaughtered for meat each year in the UK. Bred to grow fast and large to make as much profit as possible, their intensive selective breeding causes a wide range of health and welfare issues, including heart attacks, lameness, green muscle disease and organ failure.

For the past four years, we’ve been arguing that farming Frankenchickens breaches the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 - which states farmed animals can’t be kept if their genes cause them suffering.

Represented by Advocates for Animals, the UK’s first animal law firm, this long journey has led us to the Courts of Justice. Here, we’ve spent the last two days in a battle against the Government, doing everything we can to get them to uphold this law.

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The Government has overseen companies selectively breeding chickens to grow so enormous that they’re barely able to stand, saddled with excruciating health conditions coded into their DNA. The law restricts such cruel and selfish practices - all the Government has to do is enforce it. Victory at the Court of Appeals would be seismic, one of the greatest moments in the history of animal welfare, and could undo the most extreme animal cruelty crisis in the UK.

~ Sean Gifford, Managing Director of The Humane League UK

But the action hasn’t all been inside the courtroom. Outside, a large demonstration of our staff and supporters featured a giant cutout of Lady Justice holding up a Frankenchicken on her scales. We were joined by celebrities Kirsty Gallacher and Qian, the wife of the late poet Benjamin Zephaniah who wore Benjamin’s clothes in his honour. Benjamin was a supporter of our legal case and we were privileged to have her there.

As part of the court case, the RSPCA has also submitted evidence as an intervener, providing scientific expertise on the plight of fast-growing breeds. The Government is joined by the British Poultry Council and National Farmers Union, representing the interests of the £3 billion poultry industry, making it even more of a David versus Goliath case.

This is an appeal case, after our arguments were rejected by the High Court, who argued that it was the farmers' responsibility to provide environments that do not cause detriment to chickens’ health or welfare. We argue this places an unreasonable burden on farmers who are simply keeping the standard breeds and following environmental guidance created by Defra.

It’s a sad fact that over 1.5 million of these chickens die before slaughter on UK farms every week, with many of them suffering from heart attacks and lameness brought on by their unnaturally fast growth. Because of their poor health, Frankenchickens also require up to nine times more antibiotics than slower-growing breeds, contributing to the threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

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It’s an ugly secret that we kill over one billion of these animals for meat every year, the vast majority of whom are Frankenchickens, birds who grow so big, so quickly they can barely stand up. They live in their own waste, filled with ammonia which burns their legs, in giant sheds far out of our sight. Luckily there is a major case in the courts where The Humane League UK is taking on the government arguing that these breeds of chicken are illegal under current laws…together we can make Frankenchickens a thing of the past.

~ Chris Packham, Naturalist and Broadcaster

We don’t know when we’ll find out the final judgement. It could be days or months. In the meantime, millions of chickens are suffering on factory farms.

We won’t give up. We’ll keep fighting to end the abuse of animals raised for food, through our lobbying work or our public campaigns to improve the welfare of animals in supermarket supply chains.

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