Animal welfare campaigners have said billions of chickens have been left to lead “utterly miserable lives” after the failure of a high court challenge to the legality of fast-growing breeds, which suffer a multitude of health problems.
The Humane League UK (THL), represented by Advocates for Animals, argued that the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, had erred in law by permitting farmers in England to keep so-called “Frankenchickens”, which reach their slaughter weight of approximately 2.2kg in 34 to 36 days.
At a high court hearing earlier this month, lawyers for THL claimed the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra’s) policy on broiler chickens breached the welfare of farmed animals regulations 2007 (Wofar), which state: “Animals may only be kept for farming purposes if it can reasonably be expected, on the basis of their genotype or phenotype, that they can be kept without any detrimental effect on their health or welfare.”
However, in a written judgment handed down on Wednesday dismissing the challenge, Sir Ross Cranston said Coffey had not “positively authorised or approved unlawful conduct by others”.
Sean Gifford, the managing director of THL, said: “Fast-growing ‘Frankenchickens’ lead utterly miserable lives, and we think the legal system is failing them entirely. Defra could ensure chickens no longer endure painful leg deformities, open sores, and heart attacks because of their genes.
“But now over 1 billion thinking, feeling animals will be left to suffer. We will continue our fight to get justice for chickens, and are considering all of our options, including lodging an appeal against this verdict. This country and its animals deserve far better.”
About 90% of the 1 billion meat chickens slaughtered each year are faster-growing breeds. THL said about 1 million die before slaughter on UK farms every week, excluding bird flu deaths. It argued that Coffey had unlawfully failed to properly monitor and prosecute farmers who keep them and had ignored the scientific consensus on the suffering they endure.
But Cranston said Coffey “has reviewed the literature, taken expert advice including from APHA (Animal and Plant Heath Agency), accepts that there may be a higher risk of welfare issues with fast-growing meat chickens, but takes the view that they can be kept without detriment to their welfare since environmental conditions can have an influence on the health and welfare of birds with both fast- and slow-growing breeds. To my mind it cannot be said, a matter of law, that the secretary of state has acted contrary to her legal duties”.
He said Wofar accordingly put the onus on farmers to decide whether “given their genotype or phenotype they can be kept in appropriate conditions without any obvious or deleterious effect on their health or welfare”.
Edie Bowles, the co-founder of Advocates for Animals and solicitor for THL, said: “This case was an opportunity to show that the minimum standards that exist to protect farmed animals mean something in practice. If the government is not responsible for regulating this standard industry practice then who is?”
The RSPCA, which acted as an intervener in the case, called it a “missed opportunity to make the single most important change for animals in 200 years”.
