Supporting information

RSPCA views

Welfare concerns about meat chickens

Modern broilers (chickens bred for meat) reach their slaughter weight at the age of five to six weeks. This rapid growth, brought about by selective breeding programmes, nutritional and other management factors, has resulted in serious welfare concerns. The most serious of these are widespread leg weakness and joint problems. A 1992 study by the government’s independent advisory body, the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC), found that birds showed walking abnormalities on almost every broiler farm visited and concluded that some birds were distressed and likely to be experiencing pain. Since that time, research has confirmed that many birds showing walking abnormalities do indeed suffer pain. The RSPCA believes that far greater attention must be given to the health and fitness of birds, both during breeding programmes and on farms, with the target of eliminating leg and other problems associated with fast growth rate.

Space allowance
Around 90 per cent of chickens reared for meat are kept to minimum welfare standards. These allow each chicken less space than a sheet of A4 paper – even less than is allowed for egg-laying hens kept in cages.

Fast growth
They are bred to grow very quickly. The time from when they hatch to appearing as packaged meat in the supermarket can be only 35 days. This rapid growth can cause them a variety of health problems, such as heart failure and lameness.

Lighting to maximise growth rate
They are kept in near-constant dim light. This discourages activity to maximise their growth and they are only given a few hours of complete darkness each day to rest properly. It encourages the birds to eat more and therefore grow more quickly.

Signs of suffering
RSPCA research has revealed that 80 per cent of standard supermarket chickens have hock burn. These leg sores are caused by prolonged contact with wood shavings on the floors of sheds, which contain high levels of ammonia from excrement.

Welfare concerns about egg-laying hens

In the UK around 58 per cent of eggs are produced by hens kept in battery cages. Conventional barren wire mesh cages measure about 50cm x 55cm and house five hens. Research shows that associated welfare issues include:

• insufficient space for hens to properly preen, turn around, or stretch and flap their wings
• lack of opportunity for perching
• lack of opportunity for dustbathing
• lack of opportunity to lay eggs in a separate nest
• lack of opportunity for foraging.

From 1 January 2012 conventional battery cages were banned throughout Europe. However, it is still permitted to keep hens in so-called 'enriched' cages, which provide just 50cm² of extra usable space per bird compared to conventional cages, with limited provisions for a scratching area, nesting area and perches. These facilities still fail to properly cater for the hens' behavioural needs and impose severe restrictions on movement.

The RSPCA is calling for all cage systems to be banned and for hens to be kept in well-managed alternative systems such as barn or free-range. In higher welfare systems, egg-laying hens have:

• the ability to move around freely, reducing social conflict, cannibalism and feather-pecking
• space to dustbathe whenever they want to
• the ability to carry out their natural behaviours such as wing flapping, foraging, stretching and perching
• the opportunity to explore their environment
• access to litter, so they can scratch the ground and wear down their claws
• adequate nesting areas to lay their eggs.

This should be the way forward, rather than making minor improvements (see What are enriched cages? below) to the severely flawed battery cage system of housing hens.

What are enriched cages?
So-called ‘enriched’ cages were introduced in the EU in January 2012. The improvements they offer do not, in the RSPCA’s view, greatly improve the welfare of the egg-laying hens kept in them. Their limited provisions still impose a severe restriction on movement, and do not properly cater for birds’ behavioural needs. Enriched cages must only:

• allow 600cm² (still less than a sheet of A4 paper) of usable space per bird – just 50cm² more than they were allowed in the old 'barren' cages
• contain a scratching area for foraging behaviours, a nest box and a perch.

Welfare concerns about pigs

• clear and consistent labelling on pork products
• a better law to protect pig welfare.

The RSPCA is asking supermarkets and other UK food retailers to work with us and with the UK pig industry to agree set definitions.

Labelling definitions

RSPCA Freedom Food
Freedom Food is the RSPCA’s farm assurance and food labelling scheme, dedicated to improving the lives of as many farm animals as possible. The scheme only approves well-managed free-range, organic, outdoor and indoor farms, provided all the RSPCA’s welfare standards are met. The standards aim to provide farm animals with real welfare improvements and ensure that they have:

• a nourishing diet
• surroundings that meet their physical and behavioural needs for space, comfort and stimulation
• knowledgeable care and management.

The RSPCA welfare standards for meat chickens under the Freedom Food scheme insist the birds are:

• given more space to allow them to flap their wings and walk around
• given brighter lighting during the day and a longer dark period at night to allow them a proper rest period
• given a more interesting living space with perches, straw bales and pecking objects to encourage activity and the expression of natural behaviour
• selected from genetically slower-growing breeds to help overcome the serious welfare problems associated with faster growth rates.

Free-range
For poultry, such as chickens, there is a legal definition of what free-range means.

For meat chickens:

• there should be no more than 13 chickens per square metre
• chickens must be 56 days old before they are slaughtered
• they must have continuous daytime access to open-air runs, comprising an area mainly covered by vegetation, for at least half their lifetime.

For egg-laying hens:

• each bird should have at least 250cm² of litter
• there should be no more than nine hens per square metre
• birds must have perches, allowing 15cm of perch per hen
• there must be at least 10cm of feeder for each bird and at least one drinker for every ten birds
• there must be one nest for every seven birds, or 1m² of nest space for every 120 birds
• water and feeding troughs must be raised so food is not scattered.

Legal definitions of free-range do not exist for all animal products.

Organic
Organic is a term defined by EU law. Anyone using the term on a food product needs to hold a licence with an approved certification organisation. There are 10 accredited certification schemes in the UK, including The Soil Association. EU-commissioned research has found animal welfare on organic farms is better in terms of freedom of movement and access to natural behaviours, as livestock must have access to a free-range area and the number of animals per unit area must be limited. Organic egg-production systems do not permit the use of battery cages. All laying hens must be free-range.

Are higher-welfare animals healthier?
The 2006 RSPCA report Everyone's a winner for the first time provided scientific evidence that meat chickens reared to higher welfare standards are significantly healthier. It found that birds reared to RSPCA standards were healthier, with:

• an 82 per cent reduction in hock burn
• a 65 per cent lower mortality rate of birds that died, or had to be euthanased, during the rearing process.

The report also provided evidence to support the argument that rearing chickens to higher welfare standards can be mutually beneficial – not only to chickens but also to the producer, the retailer and the consumer.

According to the report:

• consumers benefit from better tasting and better quality products
• consumers demand more of these products from retailers, which begin to sell more of them.