Marks & Spencer Chicken Farm Cruelty Exposed

For Immediate Release:

19 December 2016

Contact:

Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 222; [email protected]

MARKS & SPENCER CHICKEN FARM CRUELTY EXPOSED

PETA Exposé Shows Stressed Birds Crammed Among Rotting Corpses, Casts Grave Doubts on ‘High Welfare’ Label

London – PETA has obtained eyewitness video footage (available here) of horrific conditions in sheds at two broiler chicken farms that supply Marks & Spencer, raising serious doubts over the company’s “High Welfare” meat labels. The exposés, shot reveal live birds packed among rotting corpses so tightly that they can barely spread a wing – despite Marks & Spencer’s claim that it provides the animals with an enriched environment. In addition, stressed birds are seen struggling to stand up, meaning they may have trouble reaching water – a common problem for chickens bred to grow so quickly that they become crippled – despite the company’s claim that the animals have constant access to food and water.

Photos of the exposé are available here, here, and here.

“The excruciating, nightmarish conditions endured by these chickens supplied to Marks & Spencer show that it doesn’t matter which brand you buy or what label you put on it – meat comes from agony”, says PETA Director Elisa Allen. “PETA urges everyone to help stop cruelty to animals by choosing delicious, nutritious vegan meals.”

As documented by PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – chickens on British factory farms often spend their lives with tens of thousands of other birds in sheds that stink of ammonia. They are dosed with antibiotics to fight disease and are bred to grow so large so fast that many of them collapse under their own weight and experience organ failure. Severe crowding and often filthy conditions leave them highly susceptible to chronic respiratory diseases. They are killed for their flesh at around 40 days old, when they reach “slaughter weight”. At the abattoir, they are often shackled upside down and their throats are slit, while others are scalded – sometimes while still alive – in defeathering tanks.

Broadcast-quality footage is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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