Raising welfare standards for meat chickens

Every year more than 100 million meat chickens are farmed in New Zealand. The Code of Welfare for meat chickens sets out the minimum standards of care required for chickens farmed commercially in free range (access to the outdoors) and barn raised (fully-housed) farming systems.

SPCA Certified has animal welfare standards for both free range and barn raised meat chickens, which exceed the minimum legal requirements laid out in the Code of Welfare. In addition, SPCA Certified is the only independent animal welfare assurance programme in New Zealand.

One of the ways SPCA Certified works to improve farmed animal welfare is to focus on providing chickens with opportunities to engage in situations that result in positive animal welfare outcomes. Provision of good animal welfare is about ensuring the many different aspects of the farming system and the animals requirements are kept upper-most to provide for their behavioural, physical and mental needs. For example, providing opportunities for positive experiences, leads to improved farmed animal welfare; therefore our standards ensure more space inside the shed allowing chickens to display their natural behaviour, platforms for perching and roosting and enrichment items to peck.

Our standards also require chickens to be checked more often throughout the day. In addition, all farms are audited, not just annually, but also randomly at least three times throughout the year. Under the Code of Welfare, animal welfare audits are not required for meat chickens.

At SPCA Certified we believe in making it easier for consumers to know what they are buying. The infographic below compares welfare requirements for chickens under the Code of Welfare and SPCA Certified standards. See how the different standards compare in terms of chicken health and behaviour, housing, outdoor access, and consumer assurances for how free range and barn raised chickens are raised.