NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 17 – An animal protection lobby group is condemning poultry cage farming, which it says is inhumane.
World Animal Protection Africa Campaigns Manager Victor Yamo said that it is unfortunate for firms to mistreat animals such as chickens.
“No animal should be kept in cages, unable to express their natural behaviours and experiencing huge suffering. These inhumane systems cannot be the future of Kenya farming,” Yamo said.
“we are committed to maintaining the position as a world leader in farm animal welfare and want to improve and build upon that record, working in partnership with farmers to support healthier, higher welfare animals,” he added.
Studies show that caging animals is cruel and inflicts extreme pain on them.
Such animals cannot control their lives and, among other things, experience extreme frustration.
Only five months ago, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) banned all caged farming and terminated contracts with suppliers who practiced this inhumane practice.
In a statement last year, KFC’s Managing Director called for the meat players in the world to stop using chickens that have been crammed into wire cages, living and treading in their excrement, where they can’t walk or spread their wings.
The conditions in which chickens are raised for their flesh are far less publicized than those in which they are raised for eggs.
A BBC documentary found that 34,000 chickens that were supplied to KFC were penned in a shed with few windows.
They were also given drugs that caused them to grow so quickly that their legs were unable to keep up, resulting in crippling leg deformities.
The chicks’ beaks are cut with hot wires without painkillers, and after 35 days of living hell, they are grabbed upside down by their frail legs, thrown into crates, and sent to slaughter, where their throats are slit.
They are then dropped into tanks of scalding-hot water to remove their feathers, often while they are still conscious and able to feel pain.
The farmer in charge claims it’s ‘a very good life’. And KFC claims all their suppliers “meet or exceed UK and EU welfare requirements.”
The European Commission plans to ban cages for all farmed animals, potentially by 2027.
