ABOVE: Inside Better Chicken Commitment-compliant farms in the UK. Photos: RSPCA UK
Since launching in July, the Better Chicken Australia campaign has reached tens of thousands of Australian chicken consumers across social media and news outlets with the call for higher welfare standards.
The campaign promotes the globally recognised Better Chicken Commitment as a way for food businesses to demonstrate their commitment to higher welfare standards for chickens raised for meat.
The Australian chicken industry has huge potential to deliver positive change for the over 700 million chickens raised and slaughtered for meat each year.
We know that most Australians are concerned about the welfare of farmed animals.
The success of the RSPCA Approved Meat Chicken Standard demonstrates that these concerns extend to meat chickens, and consumers are strongly supportive of improving standards.
Our work is about continuing this progress to ensure meat chickens in Australia benefit from the higher welfare requirements of the Better Chicken Commitment.
What is the BCC?
The Better Chicken Commitment is a commitment for businesses to introduce higher welfare standards for all chickens in their supply chain.
It sets targets for the most important welfare issues for chickens raised for meat.
The Better Chicken Commitment calls for:
- Higher welfare, slower growing chicken breeds
- Comfortable healthy living conditions, where each chicken has enough space, light and clean air
- Slaughter methods that are more humane, with effective stunning and no live shackling.
The full details of each requirement, and how the BCC compares to mainstream animal welfare accreditations, can be found on our website at betterchicken.org.au
The most crucial change is switching to slower growing, higher welfare breeds.
Why is breed such a significant issue?
Many of the welfare issues experienced by chickens raised for meat are either directly caused, or significantly exacerbated, by their breeding.
The two mainstream commercial breeds used by most Australian chicken producers, Cobb and Ross, are both fast-growing breeds.
The genetic selection of chickens has prioritised rapid growth alone, so there has been little attention paid to whether these chickens are suffering.
We now have an enormous industry built on producing very large chickens very quickly, while their bodies struggle to cope with this abnormal growth.
Sadly, this means these chickens are prone to many serious health issues.
They often struggle to stand and move around under their own body weight.
They often suffer from lameness, painful skin burns, bone deformities, metabolic diseases and high death rates.
Higher welfare slower growing breeds designed for the mainstream commercial market do exist, but not in Australia.
Breeds such as the Hubbard Redbro or Aviagen’s Ranger Gold are slower growing and have higher welfare outcomes compared to conventional fast-growing birds.
Why does Australia need the BCC?
When it comes to the welfare of chickens raised for meat, Australia is lagging behind consumer expectations and the latest animal welfare science.
Animal welfare is a significant motivator for consumer food choices, yet right now Australians don’t have access to the higher welfare options available to consumers in western Europe.
The Better Chicken Commitment presents an opportunity to significantly improve their welfare, in what would be a historic step forward.
Most chickens raised for meat in Australia do already meet some of the BCC requirements, for example, there has been a shift away from live inversion, shackling and electrical stunning during slaughter, with less than half of chickens slaughtered now undergoing this traumatic and painful process.
We welcome these changes, but they aren’t coming fast enough, and we don’t see movement on the crucial issue of breed.
Is a transition to BCC compliance possible?
Signing the BCC is not an overnight expectation – many of the changes required involve infrastructure upgrades and, crucially, sourcing new genetics for breeder birds.
Globally there are currently 625 commitments, with each involving a roadmap towards compliance over an ambitious but achievable timeframe.
Each company signed to the BCC must publicly report their progress on their personalised ‘roadmap’, a timeline for the implementation of BCC criteria up to the agreed upon 100 percent compliance deadline.
This ensures that progress is realistic, while companies remain accountable to their promise.
The biggest challenge facing Australia is that BCC-compliant commercial breeds are not available here – we need strong investment in building up the breeding stock and supply to provide higher welfare broiler chicks at scale.
However, as we can see from the successful adoption of the Better Chicken Commitment in other parts of the world, under the right circumstances, this is entirely possible.
Where is the BCC working best?
In Europe, 1.1 billion chickens are covered by corporate BCC agreements.
Of these, over 230 million chickens are already living under BCC standards.
Europe’s top three biggest broiler producers are raising BCC-compliant chickens at scale, with the top 13 biggest retailer and restaurant chains in the region actively transitioning to BCC compliance.
What kind of campaign is Better Chicken Australia?
The Better Chicken Australia campaign is focused on supporting positive welfare transitions in the Australian chicken meat industry.
While the RSPCA Approved Meat Chicken Standard does not currently meet the requirements of the Better Chicken Commitment, it is under review and RSPCA Australia recognises that chickens raised for meat continue to face serious welfare issues, with breed identified as a key issue.
We’re actively pursuing conversations with restaurants, retailers and producers about how they could be a part of making history for the welfare of chickens in Australia.
If that’s you, and you’re interested in the Better Chicken Commitment, we’d love to hear from you – email info@betterchicken.org.au
April Broadbent
Better Chicken Australia