On any given Friday night, the glow of a chicken shop sign is as familiar on British high streets as the sound of laughter spilling out of pubs. These brightly lit symbols of cheap, quick food have become a cultural staple — especially in urban areas where affordability and convenience often trump all else. But the true cost of this convenience is paid not at the till, but by the birds themselves, our health and the planet.
London has the dubious honour of hosting the highest concentration of chicken shops in the UK — 5.68 per 100,000 residents. As demand for cheap meat continues to soar, so too does the rise of mega farms — industrial facilities where tens of thousands of birds are crammed into ammonia-filled sheds with barely enough space to stretch a wing; their bodies coated in excrement or burns from lying in urine.
