Higher Welfare

“Higher welfare” is not a legally defined term. It has no fixed standard, no universal criteria, and no independent enforcement. Anyone can use it to market animal products, including those that have come from factory farms. Supermarkets, brands, and processors are all free to decide what “higher” means for themselves.¹

Major retailers including Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Co-op, and Lidl have committed to giving their own-brand fresh chickens around 20% more space than the legal minimum, following pressure from animal welfare groups. That figure is now used to market their products as “higher welfare, and they laud this as a major enhancement in chicken welfare.”²

But adding space means very little while all the same horrendous factory farming practices are allowed.³ The birds are still Frankenchickens, who have been genetically engineered to grow far faster than is natural for their bodies, resulting in lameness, broken legs, and premature death. Debeaking is also allowed, alongside routine antibiotic use to treat disease created by overcrowding and filth. But at least the birds had 20% more space in which to suffer all of this before being gassed to death inside highly aversive chambers. We hope they know how lucky they are.

“Higher welfare” is yet another marketing trick. The phrase doesn’t describe an outcome for animals. It describes a feeling for consumers. There is no requirement that animals live longer, have more space, go outdoors, avoid painful procedures, or be spared the worst factory farming practices. “Higher welfare” animals are still raised in industrial systems, still treated as production units, and still killed in the same gas chambers.

“Higher welfare” sounds meaningful. Legally, it isn’t.

Don’t buy it.