Topic: Government plans to cram more chickens on factory farms

[Derek]

The UK government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) wants to increase the allowed stocking density of chickens from 34 kg per square metre to 42 kg per square metre in some circumstances. That means that 19 birds could be crammed together in each square metre of floor – a space smaller than an A4 piece of paper for each chicken!

Please help us ensure that this travesty does not happen by writing to the farming minister, Jim Fitzpatrick, and urging him to prevent this cruel proposal from becoming law.

Chickens on factory farms are already forced to endure some of the worst conditions imaginable. Thousands of frightened birds are crammed together into huge, filthy sheds in which they must fight to survive, never feeling the sun on their backs or the earth beneath their feet. The birds are given drugs and bred to grow so large so quickly that their organs often fail and their legs cannot support the weight of their massive upper bodies. Many birds become painfully crippled.
The chickens often catch diseases from the accumulation of their own excrement and the decaying carcasses of other birds, which are often left to litter the floor. Once this nightmare is over, the chickens are transported to slaughterhouses for the final atrocity.