AR-News: (UK) Hungry Chickens Welfare Case Goes to Appeal

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

NEWS.scotsman.com   
Wed 7 Jul 2004
 
By John Aston, PA News  

Intensive farming methods which keep broiler chickens used for  breeding in a 
state of hunger were today challenged in the Court of  Appeal.

Compassion in World Farming asked three senior judges to outlaw  the 
Government-approved restrictive feeding regime which its says causes  suffering to 
millions of birds.

Rabinder Singh, QC, for CIWF, argued that  the regime sanctioned by the 
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs  (Defra) failed to meet 
obligations under European and domestic law to keep  chickens in good health and “to 
promote a positive state of well  being.”

Mr Singh asked Lords Justice Judge, May and Sedley to overturn a  High Court 
decision last November upholding Defra’s policy.

Mr Justice  Newman had ruled that Defra had not misdirected itself on the law 
when it  concluded that, although the breeder birds were kept in a state of 
hunger, the  current regime nevertheless maintained them in a state of good 
health and  promoted a positive state of well being.

More than 800 million broilers  are reared for their meat each year in the 
UK, with modern birds pushed through  a selective breeding regime to reach their 
slaughter weight in just 41 days –  twice as fast as 30 years ago.

Legs, heart and lungs often fail to keep  pace with the rapid growth and 
breeding birds are kept hungry to prevent them  dying before reaching maturity.

 
full  story:
_http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3173264_ 
(http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3173264)  




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"The man who kills the animals today is  the man who kills the people who get 
in his way tomorrow." - Dr. Diane Fossey,  Woman in the Mists (Dr. Fossey was 
killed by someone who killed animals  yesterday.)
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>' .' <




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