Animal welfare organisation SAFE New Zealand has released disturbing footage of deformed, suffering chickens it says was taken at a free range farm in Auckland.
The video was posted online yesterday, featuring scenes of birds trapped on their backs unable to right themselves, birds in poor condition and allegations that most of them never actually go outside.
SAFE head of campaigns Marianne Macdonald said in a statement that farms are misleading consumers about the conditions free range birds are kept in.
"It is wrong that the phrase 'free-range' is being allowed to describe the appalling conditions these overgrown baby birds are crammed into - around 40,000 in each shed," Ms Macdonald said.
"This is a manipulative attempt to trick people into paying premium prices for suffering birds.
"These chickens are of a type that is selectively bred to grow to full size in less than six weeks.
"This explosive growth causes almost a third of birds to suffer lameness, making it painful for them to walk.
"Our footage shows that the only time more than a tiny number of birds go outside the shed, is when a worker walks through, frightening the chickens ... most so-called 'free-range' birds never make it outside."
Poultry Industry of New Zealand executive director Michael Brooks said the video is "it not representative of the welfare conditions of our national flock.
"The video created by animal activists is alarmingly misleading due to the fact it uses historical footage, and cites mortality figures well out of context," Mr Brooks said in a statement.
"The annual mortality rate is less than 2 per cent of the national flock of 125 million birds, which is very low by international poultry industry comparison and lower than the mortality rate of other primary industries.
"Animal activists are extreme in their views against meat-eaters and this footage was released to support a campaign challenging people to become vegetarian.
"Every poultry producer prioritises their operation around the welfare of their flock and keeping those mortality rates low is a reflection of the industry’s excellent welfare practices."
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Primary Industries said they were made aware of the footage yesterday.
"We are reviewing the footage to determine if it warrants investigation for breaches of the Animal Welfare Act and/or the relevant Code of Welfare for Meat Chickens - ff it does, we will investigate," the spokesperson said.
"SAFE subsequently confirmed that it was taken between November 2018 and January 2019 but despite having been taken between several months ago, didn't pass it on to us until we asked for it yesterday."
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