Supermarket Frankenchickens "biggest animal welfare crisis in the country", claims report.

A new report released by animal charity The Humane League UK (THL UK) today accuses supermarkets of causing the “biggest animal welfare crisis in the country”, the use of fast-growing ‘Frankenchickens’.

‘Frankenchickens’ are chickens raised for meat who have been selectively bred to grow extremely large, extremely quickly, reaching slaughter weight in around 35 days. They suffer from numerous health problems as a result.

Chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall said - "If supermarkets spearheaded the movement to stop using Frankenchickens, billions of animals could have better lives in the coming years. It would be the most massive improvement to animal welfare in the UK, perhaps ever, and businesses could benefit as a result. We must ban the breed that has suffering built in - the status quo is cruel, wasteful and unjustifiable."

The State of the Chicken Industry report titled ‘Who’s selling you Frankenchickens?’ argues that minimum welfare standards should be lifted across the board by supermarkets by signing up to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), particularly as welfare labels can be confusing and misleading.

Aaron Parr, Senior Campaigner at The Humane League UK, said: “It is hard to imagine a worse life than that of a Frankenchicken. What should be a lively, curious bird has been transformed into an animal bred to suffer. A Frankenchicken explodes in size. With so much pressure on their tiny frames, these birds can collapse under their own weight and be forced to lie in their own waste, leaving them with painful lesions. Our plea to the public and supermarkets is to wake up. This is animal abuse, carried out against billions of birds right under our noses.”

*YouGov polling commissioned for this report revealed that 75% of people factor in animal welfare when shopping, but 74% of those who purchase chicken meat products didn’t know what welfare standards different labels described.

Supermarkets including Aldi, Tesco, Co-op, Morrisons, and Lidl have announced they will give their chickens raised for meat more space, while still using Frankenchickens.

YouGov polling indicates 78.3% of Co-op loyalty card holders consider animal welfare an important factor when choosing where to shop - one of the highest out of any supermarket. Co-op’s membership also voted at their 2023 AGM for the supermarket to adopt the BCC in full - something it has not done.

Chickens are the most farmed animal in the UK, with 1.1 billion raised and killed for meat every year. As 90% are Frankenchickens, subjected to intensive factory farming conditions, THL argues that this is an unrivalled crisis in animal cruelty.

Over 380 businesses in the UK and EU have committed to the BCC so far, including major food companies like KFC, Waitrose, Nando’s, Burger King, and M&S.

A judicial review appeal case led by The Humane League UK, which could stop the use of Frankenchickens in the UK for good, is set to take place this October