Fast-growing chickens have been selected artificially so that broilers would grow unnaturally quickly, allowing farmers to maximize profits. If people grew this fast, a five-year-old child would weigh 150kg.
ALESSIO PERRONE: ‘Horrific pain and suffering inflicted on chickens bred at farms supplying major UK supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Aldi has been claimed after activists released undercover filming. Videos taken just before slaughter shows birds are struggling to walk as their legs buckle and they collapse under their weight while they flap their wings helplessly. Bred to grow faster, they often become lame, suffer heart problems and skin diseases.
Other clips show the animals cramped in indoor farms with barely any room to move, with some pressed against walls and other seemingly standing on each other, while undercover campaigners said they also found bins full of dead bodies or other dead animals left in indoor farms for hours, sometimes overnight. The chickens were filmed at farms operated by two of the UK’s largest suppliers, Hook 2 Sisters in Devon and Moy Park in Lincoln, whose customers include chains such as Tesco, Aldi and Sainsbury’s…
The Moy Park footage showed “meat chickens with serious mobility problems”… The report said that leg abnormalities, skin diseases and poor bone structure are common among fast-growing chickens, while the most common cause of death was sudden death syndrome (SDS), which often occurred when the chicken couldn’t take in as much oxygen as its oversized body required.
“Sadly, this footage is a reflection of modern broiler production where demand for fast growth – achieving the greatest meat yield in the shortest time – continues to be the primary focus,” the RSCPA said in a statement… The veterinarian, said the chickens at the farms were also “grossly crowded” and unable to exercise natural behaviours. Mr Jackson also criticised that supermarkets’ packaging as “misleading”, displaying pictures of idyllic farms and chickens walking freely on packages of factory chicken…
“Despite vague PR statements of ‘taking welfare seriously’, footage of animals collapsing under their weight is uncovered practically every week,” said Open Cages CEO Connor Jackson, the campaign group that released the undercover videos. The animals belong to very specific breeds called Ross 308 and Ross 708, the most common fast-growing breeds of chicken, which according to Open Cages account for about 70 per cent of the entire production of chicken meat in the European Union.
Fast-growing chickens have been selected artificially through the years so that broilers would grow unnaturally quickly, allowing farmers to maximise profits… The birds can take about 35 days to achieve the target weight for the slaughter of 2-2.5kg… The report said that chicken growth rates have quadrupled in just 60 years, with birds taking just 30 days to achieve the weight of 1.5kg today – compared to 120 days in the 1950s. “If people grew this fast, a five-year-old child would weigh 150kg,” said Mr Jackson’. SOURCE…
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