The footage is a stark reminder that you can’t trust labels, Red Tractor, the government, or supermarkets when it comes to preventing the gross suffering and abuse of farmed animals. The RSPCA makes grand claims about the welfare of farmed animals in their RSPCA Assured scheme, yet is free-range really any better?
Hidden-camera footage recorded by Animal Justice Project investigators over three months at Free Range Chickens Ltd, an RSPCA Assured farm in Suffolk, reveals horrific animal suffering on the farm and during catching.
Inside this farm, baby chicks and chickens endure pain and horrific abuse. Watch Animal Justice Project’s hidden-camera footage.
The miserable lives of free-range chickens killed for meat: baby chicks are trod on, kicked and have their necks broken. Lame and injured birds are left to suffer on the shed floor. A live but injured chicken is thrown into a bucket of worker’s urine, and catchers grab birds and thrust them in crates for slaughter.
Our investigators documented day-old chicks being thrown out of crates from four foot in the air. This was onto the hard floor by the same worker who walked through the shed, kicking and treading on chicks as she went. The disregard for these tiny babies was clear. Our cameras documented a baby chick suffering for over eight hours on the floor before finally succumbing to their injuries. Impaired chicks who were found by the worker were killed by having their necks broken on feeder lines.
Documentation from inside the shed revealed that, in just one week alone, almost 500 chicks died.
Our cameras revealed that some were left to die over a period of days. This is negligence and goes against Red Tractor standards. Why is the RSPCA stamping its approval on extreme animal suffering? One bird was distressingly lodged inside a feeder. Chickens were dehydrated, exhausted, and clearly in a lot of pain. It is standard on chicken farms to kill sick birds - none are afforded medical treatment. Birds on the farms we visited were forgotten. ‘Welfare checks’' were sparse and careless. The dead, lame, deformed, injured and dying birds were all ignored on the shed floor.
Every day, workers were filmed on their phones, sitting down, and urinating on shed floors when they should have been checking the birds’ health. One lame and clearly sick chicken was left to suffer for at least two days, unable to access food and water, before finally dying.
This can lead to an epidemic of feather pecking inside farm sheds. The ‘slow growing breeds’ on the RSPCA farms we documented - in other words chickens that go to slaughter at around nine weeks - are promoted as being ‘higher welfare’ but still suffer the same health problems as faster-growing breeds. They experience lameness, heart problems, leg deformities and hock burns.
The RSPCA Assured Guidelines state that birds must be given access to natural light as soon as possible, and at least within seven days of birth. Yet for over 28 days, chickens had no natural light. Guidelines state that periods of 6-12 hours of darkness every 24 hours must also be given, yet lights were on for over 52 hours. Even more breaches of Red Tractor standards.
Keeping lights on unnaturally stimulates chickens to eat more food and grow faster. Chickens were afforded scattered wooden structures and bales of chopped straw (often left still in their plastic wrapping). Food and water sources were broken or contaminated with sodden litter and ‘enrichment’ was in the form of old plastic bottles hanging on feeder lines, some with ‘cola’ drink still inside.
This is a huge contrast to the picture painted by Red Tractor, the RSPCA and other ‘high welfare’ labels.
As birds grow up, the sheds become increasingly crowded. Excrement and burning ammonia levels rise. The increasing concentration of ammonia causes respiratory, skin and hock burns. The litter, which should be kept fresh, quickly becomes soiled and damp. The inability of birds to find clean, fresh bedding causes them to lay in their own faeces, which causes the health problems mentioned.
Before finally breaking their necks and throwing them (still conscious) onto the floor. These chickens were not checked afterwards to see if they were still alive, which is against RSPCA Assured Guidelines. We filmed birds convulsing on the ground, flapping around in circles. One worker even threw a live, but seriously impaired chicken, into a bucket of his urine. ‘High welfare’, free-range and organic chickens are not transported any differently to standard intensively-reared birds. We do not believe our investigation shows anything out of the ordinary with regards to the extreme abuse and cruelty towards chickens being caught for slaughter.
In the dead of night, workers grabbed birds by their feet before throwing them into crates, so hard that they were pushed out of the top. Chickens had their heads, legs and wings trapped, which would have caused great distress and likely severe injuries. The stress continued as workers kicked, swore and yelled at the chickens who desperately fought to upright themselves and escape the crowded plastic crates. All this was in full view of others waiting for their turn.
After the chickens’ agonising ordeal of being thrown into plastic crates, the crates were forklifted out. The uneven shed floor caused crates to knock around, further prolonging the chickens’ stress. Around 45 birds were crammed into each crate at the farm where we filmed. Both RSPCA and Red Tractor guidelines were broken with regards to sound levels being kept to a minimum. With just a few workers, 4,750 chickens were caught in one hour; there was nothing ‘humane’ happening at these speeds.
Transportation is highly stressful for chickens, especially when they have been injured by catching teams such as those we filmed at the RSPCA Assured farm. The transporter takes chickens from the farms where we filmed to Traditional Norfolk Poultry, where they will be gassed to death.
It is a brutal and shocking end for ‘high welfare’ chickens. This is The Foul Truth.
Support and share the work of Animal Justice Project to expose the foul truth about free-range farming. We are working tirelessly for an end to animal agriculture, which is cruel and unjust. But to make this happen we need your help.
Please use your voice to share the truth about this common practice that happens not only in the UK but everywhere. And please, leave chickens and all animals off your plate.
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