Give chickens more space
Aug 25, 2009
© WSPA
The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) is calling on the UK Government to bring in higher welfare standards for British chickens.
WSPA is backing the RSPCA’s Quash the Squash e-petition highlighting concerns that the Department of Food, Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) looks set to reduce the amount of space that chickens reared for meat have to live in.
Read about this important issue in the Guardian online>>
Space for factory farmed chickens could get even smaller
Currently, chickens reared to basic UK industry standards are allocated less space than a sheet of A4 paper each.
This could be reduced even further if the new UK regulations allow as many chickens per square metre as the new EU Directive states.
WSPA UK Programmes Manager Päivi Vahvelainen comments: "It is tragic that new EU legislation may result in the UK government bringing in regulations to worsen welfare for millions of chickens on British farms. WSPA believes all UK chicken farmers should at least meet RSPCA welfare standards.”
Jim Fitzpatrick MP, the Minister for Food, Farming and Environment, will consider in September how to introduce the new EU legislation into the UK. Standard chicken production in the UK (under Assured Chicken Production guidelines) gives each chicken the equivalent space of 15% less than an A4 sheet of paper.
The new EU legislation would give them even less space – 23% less than an A4 sheet of paper.
The RSPCA recommends that chickens bred for meat should in fact be stocked at an equivalent of 7.8% more space than an A4 sheet of paper per chicken, so the new EU legislation would fall well below recommended welfare standards.
Consumer choices speak volumes
© WSPA
The RSPCA’s higher welfare assurance scheme, Freedom Food, reported a 125% rise last year in the number of chickens reared under its scheme to the RSPCA’s higher welfare standards (compared to 2007).
Päivi adds: “Chickens need at least sufficient space and some environmental enrichment to be able to run, walk and flap their wings. WSPA lobbies governments across the globe to make conditions for farmed animals more humane. UK consumers are increasingly demanding higher animal welfare standards and we hope the UK government will listen to them.”
The RSPCA welfare standards for farm animals are applied by members of the Society’s Freedom Food scheme as well as being used by others within the farming and food industries in the UK and overseas.
Find out more about WSPA’s Farm Animal Welfare work
Find out more about WSPA’s model farm project
Read the joint letter to Defra from WSPA, RSPCA and Compassion in World Farming
Find out more about RSPCA’s and CIWF’s work on chicken welfare