Video: Live Birds Crammed in Next to Rotting Corpses at Major Chicken Supplier

For Immediate Release:

9 April 2018

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

VIDEO: LIVE BIRDS CRAMMED IN NEXT TO ROTTING CORPSES AT MAJOR CHICKEN SUPPLIER

PETA Exposé Shows Chickens Packed Into Vast, Dark Sheds, Debunks Company’s Animal-Welfare Claims

London – After obtaining video footage from inside a broiler chicken farm operated by Faccenda Foods – the second-largest chicken-processing company in the UK – which shows birds crammed by the thousands into huge, windowless sheds, PETA is urging the Advertising Standards Authority to investigate the company, which sells meat to national chains such as ASDA, Lidl UK, and Nando’s, for making inaccurate claims about animal welfare on its website.

The footage, taken by an eyewitness on a farm in Buckinghamshire, shows live chickens packed in among the rotting corpses of their flockmates. Many have lost feathers, likely because of stress, inadequate nutrition, or injuries inflicted by other birds. The chickens have been bred to grow so large so quickly that their legs often become crippled, leaving them in agonising pain and unable to walk, eat, drink, or even stand. The video evidence contradicts Faccenda Foods’ claim that “[g]ood welfare is paramount and that means birds that are healthy and comfortable. … [W]e have a zero tolerance attitude toward anything that jeopardises the health and wellbeing of the animals in our care.”

“Faccenda Foods is trying to hoodwink compassionate consumers with its glib, baseless nods to animal welfare,” says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “The only truly humane meal is a vegan one, and PETA is calling on authorities to hold this company accountable for duping people into thinking otherwise.”

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – notes that chickens are killed for their flesh at around 40 days old, when they reach “slaughter weight”. At the abattoir, they’re shackled upside down, their throats are slit, and they’re scalded in defeathering tanks – sometimes while still conscious.

Photos from the investigation are available on request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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