The welfare of broiler breeders

Extract

In August 1998, the UK's Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) published its most recent report: addressing the welfare of broiler breeders. Some 780 million broiler chicks are produced annually in the UK and at any one time the national population of broiler breeder hens that produce these chicks is about 6 million. Professor Sir Colin Spedding in his letter (reproduced on page iii of the report) introducing the report to the Minister of Agriculture Fisheries and Food, points out that broiler breeders are relatively valuable birds and that there is a strong commercial incentive to ensure they receive careful husbandry. However, commercial forces do not always pull in the same direction as welfare considerations and they have lead to some particular dilemmas in the welfare of broiler breeders.