It's not a secret that New Zealand is a chicken-loving country, with Kiwis consuming almost 41 kilos each per year, which is almost one kilo of chicken a week.
But now the SPCA is wanting to change the way barn-raised chickens are being looked after, adding a stamp of approval to one Waikato barn.
Kelly Drake, SPCA certified animal welfare programme national manager explained to Seven Sharp what the SPCA certification stamp meant.
"SPCA certified is an animal welfare certification programme. It's specific for farmed animals and companion animals, recently, and it's about continual improvement for animal welfare.
"It's not about minimising the negative. it's about improving the positive."
Despite the chicks only being at the farm for 35-40 days, it's important that they have a good quality of life. To do this, chicken farmer Peter Begovich has amended the barns his 30,000 chicks live in.
"Some of the things we have are perches - so If you look around here, we've got perches in place and that helps the birds because they're really motivated to perch," Drake said.
The barns also have increased toys and more sunlight.
There are also less chickens within the barn, so each chick has more space.
The barns will be audited up to four times a year, to ensure that regulations are being upheld. The audits will be unannounced, so farmers won't have time to make the barns up to scratch if they are lacking.
Watch the above Seven Sharp video to see how the SPCA and chicken farmers are trying to increase the quality of life for baby chicks.
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