Co-op board refuses to stop selling ‘Frankenchickens’ despite members voting against

Co-op’s board and members clashed at its annual general meeting over the weekend over the welfare of chickens reared for meat.

Demonstrators urged the convenience retailer to adopt the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), a welfare policy deigned by experts to improve the lives of chickens by replacing fast-growing breeds with healthier, slower-growing birds and giving the animals more space, natural light and enrichments.

Despite 96% of 32,000 Co-op members voting for this at the AGM, the board has refused to stop selling fast-growing ‘Frankenchickens’ as it strived to keep prices down.

However, it has agreed to give chickens more space, equivalent to BCC requirements.

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If the retailer followed the mandate set by its members, it would become the third supermarket to make the pledge, alongside Waitrose and M&S.

The motion was headed by Co-op members from animal charity The Humane League UK and was the only member-led demonstration that appeared at the AGM this year.

It comes as an estimated 51 million birds supplied to Co-op each year would benefit from the BCC improvements, while only 2% of the supermarket’s chickens raised for meat are currently reared to higher welfare standards.

‘Frankenchickens’ make up around 90% of the over one billion chicken reared for meat in the UK each year and can suffer from health and welfare issues such as heart attacks, organ failure, lameness, bone deformities, muscle diseases and burns due to their rapid growth.

“Co-op members have overwhelmingly voted to help chickens. It is inspirational that tens of thousands of members across the country have decided that the cruel use and abuse of Frankenchickens is outright wrong,” Co-op member and senior campaigner at The Humane League UK, Aaron Parr said.

“But the Co-op leadership has betrayed its ethical and democratic values by clinging on to using Frankenchickens. The Co-op exists for its members – their democratic will must not be ignored by those at the top.”