Animal activists will target a Bristol Morrisons store in protest over the selling of fast-growing so-called 'Frankenchickens, this week. On Wednesday, protesters from the Humane League UK will gather at the supermarket on Peterson Avenue in Hartcliffe at 3pm where they will demand that Morrisons adopt the Better Chicken Commitment.
Protesters will carry placards and banners with images of fast-growing chickens, captioned with the words "Supermarkets sell suffering" and "Beware: This company serves up chicken cruelty". The BCC is a welfare policy that aims to drastically reduce the suffering of chickens raised for meat by providing more space, natural light, enrichment, as well as less painful slaughter methods, third-party auditing and prohibiting the use of fast-growing breeds.
Fast-growing chicken breeds, dubbed 'Frankenchickens' for their unnatural size and growth rate, account for around 90% of the UK's 1.12 billion meat chickens. Activists say they suffer from painful health conditions like heart attacks, lameness, hock burns, ascites and white striping disease at higher rates than slow-growing birds. According to The Humane League UK, more than 300 companies in the restaurant, food service and manufacturing sectors have signed on to the BCC, including outlets like KFC, Greggs, Nando's, Kraft-Heinz, Compass Group and Nestle.
