One billion chickens are slaughtered for meat in the UK each year.

The vast majority suffer terribly from intensive farming practices.

Chickens farmed for meat (broiler chickens) are made to grow unnaturally fast. This can lead to heart attacks and chronic leg problems from struggling to carry their own weight.

Chickens are intelligent creatures and, like us, have the capacity to feel pain and emotion. The space they have doesn’t  provide them with enough room to do the things which come naturally to them, like moving about freely and flapping their wings.

The four key issues for meat chickens

What we want changed

More and more chickens are killed for food each year, but despite this rapidly growing demand, there has been little progress made in improving the welfare of the majority of chickens bred for their meat. It’s time things changed.

The RSPCA and other groups across Europe are urging food businesses to implement a new set of standards – The Better chicken Commitment – which calls for:

• The use of slower growing breeds, to protect chicken health and welfare
• more space so that birds can move about freely and perform their natural behaviours
• straw bales and vegetables to peck, to act as enrichment and keep birds occupied
• natural light
• adopting more humane methods of slaughter. 

As the majority of people still choose to eat meat, dairy and eggs and the demand for chicken is predicted to rapidly rise, these steps are vital to improving the life of billions of meat chickens.

Take action for chickens

We’re calling on Supermarkets to sign up to The Better Chicken Commitment and need your help.

Email UK Supermarkets today and ask them to commit to higher standards for meat chickens...