Chickens have been selectively bred since the 1950s to grow larger breast muscles as fast as possible. Modern breeds now reach slaughter weight in a mere 35 days. What is gained in efficiency is paid for by the birds’ bodies.
Many suffer painful leg disorders and struggle to walk, experiencing ammonia burns from prolonged contact with their own waste. Others suffer from organ failure and sometimes even heart attacks. These problems are written into the birds’ genetics, so the fix is to use slower growing breeds instead, which live better lives.
The news from Denmark hasn’t come from nowhere. Chicken production norms are now being challenged by experienced and well-funded charities across the world.
My Danish and Norwegian colleagues have worked on this issue for a decade. A lot of the initial work happened in boardrooms and the public sphere, rather than in parliament.
First, we popularised the term “turbochickens” (turbokylling) in Denmark and Norway (with the word even being added to each country’s dictionary) to highlight the extremely unnatural overbreeding of these birds. At the same time, we’ve engaged in dialogue with many of the countries’ largest food companies and producers.
As retailers, restaurants, cafe chains and even petrol stations demanded higher welfare chicken breeds, the national supply chains shifted to meet this demand. A similar process took place in the UK recently with the shift to a lower stocking density, which was championed by commitments from buyers in response to rising consumer concern.
And just like the UK, it hasn’t all gone smoothly in other countries. We’ve also had to run accountability campaigns to highlight the stragglers or the occasional broken promise.
But progress has been much faster in Norway and Denmark than in the UK. Recently, the Norwegian chicken industry announced that it will completely abolish fast-growing breeds by the end of 2027.
Dutch retailers have already removed these breeds from the shelves (known in the Netherlands as “plofkip” or “exploding chicken”), and every German supermarket has committed to removing them by 2030.
And now Denmark - which has already transitioned 40% of retail chickens to slower growing breeds - could become the first country to make them illegal.
Britain is next, and companies’ chicken welfare standards are coming under increasing scrutiny
Around nine in ten chickens eaten in Britain are still fast-growing, and most people are completely unaware of the nature and scale of this farming practice.
In response, Anima and other UK animal welfare organisations have popularised the term “frankenchicken”: which most people find to be a fitting term when they see how these bedraggled birds look.
The UK is known as a nation of animal lovers. That’s why, when polled, UK consumers say they are overwhelmingly against practices like fast-growing chicken breeds (a survey conducted by the RSPCA found that 87% of respondents want UK supermarkets to stop selling fast-growing chickens).
In response to this rising concern, Waitrose made a full transition to slower growing breeds in 2025 and M&S has also made the transition for its fresh chicken products and is also on its way to making a full transition.
Similarly, many UK food service companies have made commitments to end their use of frankenchickens by 2026.
Anima is working with a number of these companies to see those commitments through, for example by connecting them with high welfare suppliers and working to positively highlight their efforts positively.
However, several of these companies have unfortunately gone back on their word despite our best efforts behind the scenes.
Some - such as KFC, Nando’s and Burger King - publicly withdrew their commitments earlier this year after making 0% progress on phasing out fast-growing breeds.
Pret A Manger - one of the most high profile signatories, due to their premium branding - has also made 0% progress, and has now pushed its commitment deadline back to 2032, stating it will not start transitioning to slower-growing breeds until 2031.
For a campaigner like myself, it’s difficult to trust a company that says it will do something after not having done it for eight years. We made it clear that even moving 15-30% of its supply chain to higher welfare breeds next year would go a long way in showing good faith. But Pret looks to have kicked the can down the road instead with a plan that lacks credibility. Trust is earned.
That’s why, following two years of dialogue, Anima launched a £1m public accountability campaign about Pret A Manger, aiming to highlight the situation to consumers. We came to this decision after concluding that Pret was unwilling to ‘do the right thing’ - one of its core values - on its own.
£1m might seem disproportionate - and in some ways it is. But we’re at a point now in the UK where we need to see food businesses back up their promises with action, and it starts with companies like Pret whose customer base already expects the highest standards of chicken welfare.
And it’s not just us. Animal organisations Project Slingshot and Animal Equality have also launched campaigns to highlight Pret’s inaction, and nine animal welfare organisations recently signed an open letter expressing a united concern about Pret’s continued use of fast-growing breeds, and its lack of a convincing plan to change this.
The news from Denmark shows that companies can do the right thing for animals and consumers reward them for it. With our Danish colleagues, we’ve taken to social media to join in praising every Danish politician backing a ban on frankenchickens. We much prefer to work this way - highlighting positive efforts rather than applying pressure. In a better world, we’d be spending a much larger proportion of our money and resources to use positive reinforcement as a lever for change. We don’t live in that world yet, but the developments in Europe suggest it’s only a matter of time.
Connor Jackson is the CEO of animal rights charity Anima