Fast Food Chains Lack Commitment on Chicken Welfare
TORONTO, Jan. 21, 2019 /CNW/ - They are sick, injured, stressed and living in cramped, filthy conditions. This is the life of a factory farmed chicken. Currently, it's estimated that 40 billion chickens around the world each year are subjected to significant cruelty in factory farms. In Canada, approximately 682-million chickens were slaughtered in 2016.
These animals are given just over a month to live until they are slaughtered, when they are still effectively babies. Grown with little consideration for them as living, breathing, inquisitive animals and to meet consumer demand for cheap meat, factory farmed chickens have been genetically selected to grow unnaturally fast. This places huge pressure on their heart, lungs and legs. They live in chronic pain, suffering from lameness, skin lesions and heart failure.
Consumers may be unaware how horrendous life is for a chicken before it reaches their plate. Now, World Animal Protection has put some of the world's biggest fast-food chains under the spotlight. The Pecking Order 2018 report is the first-ever international ranking on the welfare of chickens raised for meat. Burger King, Domino's Pizza Group, Domino's Inc[1], KFC, McDonald's, Nando's, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Subway have all been assessed. The results are deeply concerning; not one of the companies is taking this critical issue seriously enough on a global scale.
World Animal Protection has launched the ranking as part of its Change for Chickens campaign, which is challenging the fast-food industry to stop the cruelty and suffering in meat chicken production worldwide by committing to source from higher-welfare farms.
Companies were assessed by publicly available information on three areas: Interest, via policies on the welfare of chickens; ambition, via targets set to improve chickens' lives; and transparency, via reporting on if they are living up to their promises.
Key findings from The Pecking Order 2018 are:
- None of the fast-food chains have a global policy on improving chicken welfare.
- In most countries they are not even guaranteed a humane slaughter. With some cases, birds are not stunned before having their throat slit. In other cases, the use of the traditional water bath stunning method is used, but is notoriously ineffective leaving many birds fully conscious when live shackled (hung upside down on a conveyer belt) before their throat is slit.
- Four companies – McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut and Nando's were classed as having a very poor commitment to chicken welfare because of their inadequate policies, targets and reporting.
- Domino's Inc and Domino's PLC both received a failing grade.
- Transparency is poor, with all companies providing little or no information to show how they are performing when it comes to chicken welfare.
Lynn Kavanagh, Campaign Manager for World Animal Protection says, "These companies must respond to the growing concerns for animal welfare. They have the power to improve the lives for millions of these vulnerable animals. We will continue to put pressure on them to create a real and positive change for chickens. There is no excuse for the fear and pain that a factory farmed chicken has to go through."
World Animal Protection will continue to review The Pecking Order every year to monitor the progress of major fast-food brands.
For consumers who want help identifying humane chicken and other meat at the grocery store, see World Animal Protection's Humane Guide To Farming.
Notes to editors
For interviews, video and images, please contact Nina Devries, Media Manager for World Animal Protection at 416 369 0044 x100 or [email protected]
[1] Domino's Pizza Group is a master franchise of the UK-based European arm of Domino's Pizza, whereas Domino's Inc is the American based business.
About Change for Chickens
World Animal Protection's Change for Chickens campaign urges the food industry to commit to global policy changes that will improve the welfare of billions of chickens. In particular, companies should:
- Use chicken breeds that grow at a healthier rate to reduce strain on their bodies such as painful bones and joints, lameness and even death.
- Ensure chickens have the space to move freely. Although cages aren't used for meat chickens in Canada the birds are often so severely crowded they can barely move.
- Give chickens perches, natural lighting and high-quality bedding. In Canada, lights can be kept on 20 hours a day to encourage eating. However, four hours of darkness does not allow the birds proper rest.
- Ensure that chickens are slaughtered using more humane methods that avoid live shackling and render all animals unconscious before slaughter.
About World Animal Protection
World Animal Protection (formerly known as the World Society for the Protection of Animals) has moved the world to protect animals for the last 50 years. World Animal Protection works to give animals a better life. Its activities include working with companies to ensure high-standards of welfare for the animals in their care, working with governments and other stakeholders to prevent wild animals being cruelly traded, trapped or killed, and saving the lives of animals and the livelihoods of the people who depend on them in disaster situations. www.worldanimalprotection.ca
SOURCE World Animal Protection
For interviews, video and images, please contact Nina Devries, Media Manager for World Animal Protection at 416 369 0044 x100 or [email protected]
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