Give chickens more space

We are 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.

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 meter 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*.

Chickens need at least sufficient space and some environmental enrichment to be able to run, walk and flap their wings. The World Society for the Protection of Animals lobbies governments across the globe to make conditions for farmed animals more humane. UK consumers are increasingly demanding higher animal welfare standards, we hope the UK government will listen to them too.”

Sign the RSPCA's Quash the Squash e-petition to help improve welfare standards for chickens >>

Jim Fitzpatrick MP, the Minister for Food, Farming and Environment, will consider in September how to introduce the new EU legislation into the UK.

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).  Freedom Food has also reported a further 3% cent increase in the first half of 2009.

Standard chicken production in the UK (under Assured Chicken Production guidelines) gives space of 526 sq cm (19 birds/-sq m), the equivalent of 15% less than an A4 sheet of paper.  New EU legislation would allow 21 birds/-sq m – 23% less than an A4 sheet of paper.

The RSPCA recommends that chickens bred for meat should be stocked at no more than 15 birds/-sq m – equivalent of 7.8% more space than an A4 sheet of paper per chicken.

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.