The World Animal Protection has advised food companies to develop the requisite Farm Animal Welfare policies that are aligned with the Farm Animal Responsible Minimum Standards (FARMS), and make their commitments to improving farm animal welfare throughout the supply chain.
This says global fast-food companies, should liaise with their headquarters and/or franchises in other geographical locations which have developed the farm animal welfare policies aligned to FARMS and make commitments to improve on farm animal welfare within their supply chain to help them develop the same to eliminate the double standards within their supply chain.
The call was made during the release of the Pecking Order Report 2022 by World Animal Protection on Wednesday in Kampala.
The report sheds light on the current state of chicken farming and offers practical solutions to improve chicken welfare, reduce environmental impact, and ensure consumer safety.
The report highlighted the need for fast-food companies to take urgent action to address animal welfare and human health concerns.
It revealed that consumers are increasingly holding companies accountable for the treatment of animals used in their supply chains, and companies must recognise that there is no justification for profiting from the pain of sentient beings.
The farming campaigns manager at World Animal Protection, Dr Victor Yamo, said while progress has been made by some companies, some must be held accountable for their shameful lack of consideration for animal welfare.
Yamo explained that every year, billions of chickens endure chronic pain, skin lesions, and even heart failure caused by selective breeding, with little environmental enrichment in their cramped living conditions.
The Country Director of World Animal Protection Africa, Williams Tennyson, said each year billions of chickens are subjected to unnecessary suffering at the hands of fast-food companies who refuse to take the welfare of the chickens in their meat supply chain seriously.
Every year since the publication of The Pecking Order 2019, fast-food restaurants have been ranked on their chicken welfare policies, taking into account their commitments to make improvements and their reporting on implementing these commitments.
Since then, Tennyson said while there has been some progress made on improving chicken welfare and some companies are innovating by offering meat-free options on their menus, most companies have received embarrassingly low scores in The Pecking Order 2022.
This year’s results, he said, clearly indicate that some of the world’s leading food companies are deliberately ignoring large-scale animal cruelty in their supply chains and, as a result, are eroding their social license to operate.