Fury as farm retains RSPCA welfare mark

A still from undercover footage taken of AD Harvey workers rounding up chickens into crates. 

RSPCA Assured slammed for reinstating controversial 'chicken catching gang' despite widespread condemnation of hen welfare abuses.

How can the public trust RSPCA Assured when such blatant abuses are permitted to continue?

Animal welfare campaigners have called on the RSPCA to end its assurance scheme after the charity confirmed it had reinstated a “chicken-catching gang” that had been caught on camera meting out abuse to thousands of birds. 

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Farmworkers employed by AD Harvey's abattoir in Norfolk caught as many as 30,000 hens sourced from farms in Leicestershire, Kent, Oxfordshire, and Bedfordshire in a single night and crammed into crates, according to an undercover investigation by Animal Justice Project in October last year. 

The abattoir had RSPCA Assured approval. The quality mark was suspended after the AJP investigation was made public. However, it has now been reinstated.

Cruel

The RSPCA sent an email to Animal Justice Project last month defending its decision, claiming that AD Harvey had made "significant changes to improve bird welfare" and had passed all relevant assessments. 

The charity stated: “As an animal welfare charity, we are duty-bound to help improve the welfare of farm animals, including assisting those who have erred in making things right for the benefit of the animals."

The latest revelation comes during a widespread backlash regarding the charity’s farm animal welfare standards, highlighted by The Ecologist along with the Mirror, the Independent and BBC News.

This had led to renewed calls for the main RSPCA to sever links with the assured scheme and stop allowing its name and brand to be used from a coalition of more than 60 NGOs, celebrities, former RSPCA board members and vets.

Claire Palmer, director of Animal Justice Project, said: “There is no humane way to catch tens of thousands of chickens at breakneck speeds in the middle of the night. This is an inherently cruel process and these products should never bear the RSPCA Assured label.

Violence

“The RSPCA’s claim that AD Harvey has improved after these egregious acts is simply not credible. Its assurance scheme has failed time and time again. How can the public trust RSPCA Assured when such blatant abuses are permitted to continue?"

Animal Justice Project's investigation into AD Harvey in 2023 exposed disturbing instances of cruelty. The undercover footage, captured at Kettleby Farm in Leicestershire, shows some of the most shocking scenes ever documented by AJP. 

How can the public trust RSPCA Assured when such blatant abuses are permitted to continue?

Workers employed by AD Harvey were filmed kicking, throwing, and violently handling hens.The gang was observed catching up to five hens at a time. 

The hens were violently swung by their legs and kicked or slammed into crates. The crates were forcibly closed on hens’ wings, legs, and heads. There were repeated acts of violence, including hitting birds with feeders and crates.

Future

The birds sustained injuries due to the brutal handling practices, including broken bones, bruising, and suffocation.

These acts contravened multiple animal welfare regulations, including the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007, the Animal Welfare Act 2006, and DEFRA's Code of Practice for the Welfare of Laying Hens and Pullets.

Animal Justice Project has said the welfare abuses at Kettleby Farm were shocking, but were certainly not isolated incidents at farms in the UK with the RSPCA Assured status. Palmer added: “The RSPCA Assured farms we have investigated revealed a pattern of widespread abuses - violating both animal welfare standards and legal regulations.”

The animal welfare group continues to urge the RSPCA to sever ties with its assured scheme and instead focus on promoting a future free from animal farming, which is responsible for widespread suffering and environmental degradation.

A spokesperson for AD Harvey said: “We believe our practices are better than they have ever been, and we remain committed to continuous improvement for the benefit of bird welfare, our employees, suppliers and customers.”

A spokesperson for RSPCA Assured said: "We are fully satisfied [AD Harvey] is now meeting all of the relevant RSPCA welfare standards and it has successfully passed an assessment, by our specially-trained assessors, to rejoin RSPCA Assured. 

"We launched an independent review of RSPCA Assured, which has been carried out over several months, including unannounced visits to more than 200 members of the scheme. We will assess this and communicate our findings as soon as we are able."

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist online.

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