We, the undersigned, demand that the Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) publish a binding timetable to end the factory farming of chickens in the UK, beginning immediately with a ban on the fast-growing breeds known as "Frankenchickens".
Over one billion chickens are killed for meat in the UK every year. Nearly all of them are reared in intensive factory farms that the public has neither seen nor sanctioned. At the centre of that system is a bird the industry calls a "high-performing broiler". It is not high-performing. It is a Frankenchicken, and it is sold in most supermarkets from Aldi to Sainsbury’s, and restaurant chains like KFC and Pret.
These birds have been overbred to reach slaughter weight in around 35 days, roughly a 400% increase in growth rate since the 1950s, because speed means profit. Their bodies cannot keep pace with what has been done to them. Lameness, broken bones, heart attacks, organ failure, and respiratory collapse are routine, not rare. The filthy conditions and their speed of growth mean the industry pumps them full of antibiotics to keep them alive long enough to be killed.
In December 2024, the Court of Appeal ruled that animals should not be farmed if it means they will suffer because of how they have been bred, and that improved productivity is no defence. The court was clear that welfare cannot be sacrificed for Big Ag’s economic interests. That ruling describes the lives of over 90% of chickens currently reared in the UK.
Their suffering is not accidental — it is engineered; it is the business model.
Banning Frankenchickens is the first step toward ending the factory farming system altogether.
We demand that Defra:
- Immediately ban the fast-growing "Frankenchicken" breeds whose suffering the Court of Appeal's ruling describes.
- Publish a binding legislative timetable to end the factory farming of chickens altogether in the UK.
#DontBuyIt #BanFrankenchickens #EndFactoryFarming