- Chicken breeding methods in Britain inflict a life of
misery on millions of birds which is tolerated by the Government but breaks
international law, the High Court was told yesterday.
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- Animal welfare campaigners said the intensive rearing
of 800 million broiler chickens, which allegedly leaves millions of birds
unable to support their weight, was the "biggest scandal in farming".
Broiler chickens are bred for their meat. A judge was told that the British
chicken industry, worth £2.9bn a year, uses specially selected breeds
that grow so fast that their legs, heart and lungs often fail to keep pace,
causing suffering and death.
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- International farm animal welfare group, Compassion in
World Farming (CIWF), claimed modern broilers were bred to reach their
slaughter weight in 41 days, twice as fast as 30 years ago. Lawyers for
the group said the methods were permitted by the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), despite the fact that they breach European
Union directives on animal welfare.
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- Rabinder Singh QC, for CIWF, told Mr Justice Newman:
"The evidence shows that while broilers' muscle - the meat for which
they are to be killed - grows rapidly, the supporting structure of legs,
heart and lungs fails to keep pace with rapid body growth, and can be damaged
by the strain of supporting overgrown bodies. As a result, each year in
Britain, a very large number of broilers suffer painful, sometimes crippling,
leg disorders. Millions die every year from heart failure."
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- In an unusual legal move, CIWF is seeking a judicial
review to force the Government to outlaw current rearing practices and
force breeders to introduce slower growing birds into the production cycle.
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- Defra is contesting the case. A spokesman said: "The
Government ... believes that the relevant EU animal welfare directive has
been implemented correctly."
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- Britain produces about 740,000 tons of chicken a year,
and, across the EU, some four billion broilers are raised. After years
of breeding research, flocks reared in vast sheds now reach the slaughter
weight of 2kg within six weeks, making intensively-reared chicken the fastest
produced of all meats.
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- CIWF said scientific evidence showed up to 30 per cent
of chickens suffered leg abnormalities which left them unable to walk or
having to use their wings to support their weight. The overall mortality
rate of 4.7 per cent meant about 40 million birds were dying every year
from causes such as heart and lung failure.
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- CIWF told the court that the accelerated growth of broilers
had led to a second category of bird, kept for breeding, being "starved"
to ensure it lived long enough to reach sexual maturity. The breeding population,
accounting for about seven million chickens in Britain, was fed a restricted
diet of 25 to 50 per cent of that given to normal broilers to avoid excessive
weight gain. As a result, the birds, which live for up to 70 weeks, were
found by a European Commission study to be "chronically hungry, frustrated
and stressed".
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- Under a 1998 EU directive, all farm animals must be given
enough food to ensure they are kept in good health. CIWF claims the restricted
feeding regimes breach those rules and is calling for Defra to prosecute
farmers using such diets.
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- Peter Stevenson, CIWF's political and legal director,
said the whole industry was built on unlawful practice. "It is the
biggest scandal in farming, we have millions of birds which are suffering."
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- A judgment on the case is expected to be delivered by
the end of November.
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- © 2003 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/story.jsp?story=458640
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