Labour Councillors call for a Fair Deal for chickens and an end to unnecessary cruelty

21 February 2008

Cambridge Labour Councillors want a better deal for chickens and other fowl, and have submitted a motion for this month's City Council to end Council purchases of fowl, battery eggs, and egg-based products which fail to meet RSPCA Freedom Food standards.

Labour Councillors are asking the city to change its purchasing this year, well ahead of planned industry changes and the EU 2012 deadline.
(motion text below, along with some chicken and egg facts)

Coun Lewis Herbert , City Labour Group leader, said 'The only reason battery-reared chicken and eggs are so cheap is because we are being cruel to chickens.  As a civilized society, our only real option is to end such appalling treatment of animals.

'The City Council should only buy chickens and eggs that are cruelty-free.  Households need to consider following suit, much helped if all supermarkets were to follow the lead from Sainsbury's and Waitrose in offering tasty alternatives to battery production.  Labour Councillors also hope that the University, city restaurants and schools will follow suit.

'This will also provide great support to Jamie Oliver's 'fowl dinners' campaign, not least because he is planning to share our Guildhall, when he later opens 'Jamie's Italian'.'

 

NOTES

1     LABOUR'S MOTION:

The Council supports the switch to food production that respects and increases animal welfare.

As a first stage, the Council asks the Leader to bring a report to Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee to end the purchase of fowl, battery eggs, egg-based products and other fowl products by the Council whose production fails to meet RSPCA Freedom Food standards, including detailed measures to be implemented by December 2008.

The Council will also write to contractors and caterers using council premises asking them to support the Council's policy.

2     SOME CHICKEN AND EGG FACTS from Jamie Oliver's website.

DID YOU KNOW ?

CHICKENS
• Chicken is Britain's most popular meat
• We eat 12 times as much chicken as we did 30 yrs ago
Our perpetual demand means that not only is it mass produced, it is also dirt cheap:
• 855 million chickens are produced in the UK every year
• Supermarkets are selling whole birds for as little as £2
• Pound for pound that's cheaper than some dog food
But this low unit cost is not necessarily good for the farmer or the birds.
• Every day 100,000 birds die in standard chicken farms due to poor welfare conditions

EGGS
• We eat over 10 billion eggs a year in the UK
• As well as being sold whole, eggs are present as an ingredient in a number of foods including mayonnaise, biscuits and even wine
• 86% of these eggs still come from battery caged hens who do not have the freedom to express natural behaviour i.e. dust bathe, forage, roost & nest.