Mike Hancock News
MP joins with chief executives of animal welfare organisations to demand higher welfare standards for chickens
Mike Hancock is today writing to the Minister for Food in conjunction with the heads of the RSPCA, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) to demand higher standards for the rearing of chickens. A draft EU directive likely to be implemented into British law in the next few weeks could mean that chickens are allocated less than an A4 sheet of paper in space. This could mean worse standards than at the moment as stocking densities could be increased in the new regulations. But individual countries can opt out and set their own lower stocking densities, giving chickens more space.
Over 260 MPs have joined Mike in backing a Parliamentary Motion (EDM 581) calling for higher standards for chickens. Now the MP is urging other MPs to join him in writing to the Food Minister demanding more space for the birds. Mike has also set up an online petition calling for more space for chickens at http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/chickens or http://tinyurl.com/lkcwxm
Mike Hancock said: "I believe that the British public will support British farmers if they believe that British chickens are raised to a higher standard than in other countries. Ideally I would like to see even higher standards. But I don't see how it can be right to go backwards in animal welfare standards. I hope that the Minister for Food will not do that."
Notes: A PDF version of the letter to Jim Fitzpatrick, the Minister of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from Mike Hancock and the heads of Compassion in World Farming, RSPCA, and the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) can be found here.
Mike's EDM - EDM 581 "Food Labelling and The Welfare of Chickens" can be accessed at: http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=37615&SESSION=899
260 MPs have supported it - the fourth highest of any EDM.
The EDM states: "That this House believes that all chicken meat, including imported chicken meat, should be labelled as to farming method and preferably stocking density; further believes the labelling regulation that requires packs of shell eggs to be labelled as to production method should be extended to chicken meat; congratulates Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Compassion in World Farming on their Chicken Out! campaign calling on supermarkets to introduce labelling as to farming method to allow consumers to make informed choices; notes that most UK chickens are still reared intensively in overcrowded conditions and have been bred to grow so quickly that many suffer from lameness and heart problems; and calls on the Government to make it a requirement for all chicken producers to meet the conditions of the RSPCA's Freedom Food scheme."
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