Frankenchickens: The Unnatural Truth Behind Modern Chicken
BIRDS JUST WEEKS OLD SHOULDN’T SUFFER ORGAN FAILURE AND HEART ATTACKS.
COMPANIES PROMISED TO STOP SOURCING FRANKENCHICKENS. IT’S TIME THEY FOLLOWED THROUGH.
DEMAND THAT COMPANIES STOP SOURCING FRANKENCHICKENS.
Frankenchickens are chickens who have been selectively bred by the meat industry to grow unnaturally large and abnormally fast to produce as much meat as possible in the least time. Besides monstrous growth, the results are immense animal suffering and often visibly diseased chicken meat.
Despite pledging to stop sourcing Frankenchickens by 2024 or 2025, some companies—including Whole Foods, Chipotle, Subway, Starbucks, Pita Pit, and MTY Group—seem more committed to selling meat from birds bred to suffer than to fulfilling their pledges. Demand that companies publish plans for banning Frankenchickens from their supply chains.
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THE TRUTH FROM HATCHING TO SLAUGHTER
UNNATURAL GROWTH, UNBEARABLE SUFFERING
The chicken industry intentionally breeds these birds to grow so unnaturally fast that, on average, they now reach 2.4 kilograms in about 38 days. This is almost four times as fast as they grew in 1950. Frankenchickens’ immature bones struggle to support them, so the birds often collapse.
APPALLING ENVIRONMENTS, HORRIFIC LIVES
Frankenchickens often suffer lameness, heart disease, and organ failure. They spend their short lives in overcrowded barns lying on waste-soaked litter, making them vulnerable to Salmonella and other intestinal infections.
SHACKLED, SHOCKED, SLASHED, SCALDED
Many Frankenchickens die by brutal live-shackle slaughter. The terrified young birds are shackled upside down, painfully shocked, and slashed at the throat before they are submerged in scalding water—many while still conscious.
MONSTROUS GROWTH, DISEASED MEAT
Meat products from Frankenchickens often bear visible scars from the appalling cruelty these animals endure from hatching to slaughter. The birds’ circulatory systems can’t keep up with the abnormal weight gain, causing the birds to suffer a high rate of muscle disease. One disorder, white striping, occurs when muscle fibres starved of oxygen die and are replaced with fat. Visible to the naked eye as white lines of fat across the breast, white striping raises the fat content and lowers the protein content.
IT GETS WORSE: SPAGHETTI MEAT, WOODY BREAST, GREEN MUSCLE DISEASE
Other muscle abnormalities are also common in Frankenchickens:
- Spaghetti meat: mushy, soft, and stringy meat created when weak muscles unravel
- Green muscle disease: strangulated, dead muscle that turns meat green
- Woody breast: hard, rubbery meat associated with walking impairment in the bird and the inability to stand up after falling
There is nothing natural about breeding animals to suffer and produce diseased meat.*
*The muscle diseases and their impacts on meat discussed here are associated with the practices of (not necessarily the products of) the companies featured on this website.
THERE IS NOTHING NATURAL ABOUT MODERN CHICKEN PRODUCTION.
PROMISES MADE. TIME TO DELIVER.
Companies across the food industry promised to implement Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) standards years ago, which include improving conditions for chickens, ending live-shackle slaughter, and replacing Frankenchickens with higher-welfare breeds.
THESE CHAINS CONTINUE TO SOURCE FRANKENCHICKENS
While most of these companies pledged to eliminate Frankenchickens, they have failed to publish plans for keeping their promises.
MTY Group
The largest franchisor of some of the biggest Canadian chains, such as Extreme Pita and Country Style, MTY Group has yet to share progress or a plan for fulfilling their promise to meet BCC standards by 2025.
Pita Pita
Owned by Foodtastic, also the parent company of Second Cup, Quesada, and other well-known Canadian brands, Pita Pit has not reported any progress on meeting BCC standards or eliminating Frankenchickens.
WHOLE FOODS MARKET
This retailer has shared progress and a plan for fulfilling most BCC standards, but the company’s roadmap does not include a clear timeline for fully eliminating Frankenchickens.
CHIPOTLE
Chipotle is reporting unclear progress toward some BCC components and has made no progress on eliminating Frankenchickens. The company refuses to publish a timeline for meeting all BCC standards.
STARBUCKS
Starbucks has failed to publish a roadmap for eliminating Frankenchickens or meeting any other BCC standards. In their latest impact report, the company even weakened their chicken welfare policy.
SUBWAY
Subway has withdrawn their public BCC policy, weakened their chicken welfare language, and never published progress or plans for eliminating Frankenchickens or meeting any other BCC standards.
DEMAND THAT THESE COMPANIES PUBLISH CLEAR PLANS FOR MEETING ALL THEIR CHICKEN WELFARE PROMISES.
CANADIANS WANT COMPANIES TO DO BETTER
OF CANADIANS SURVEYED, 80%
believe that grocery stores and restaurants should adopt animal welfare standards that would improve life for chickens raised for meat.
OF ONTARIANS SURVEYED, 92%
believe that oversight and transparency concerning conditions for factory-farmed animals are important.
OF ONTARIANS SURVEYED, 90%
believe it is important that animals raised for food be raised in hygienic conditions.
OF ONTARIANS SURVEYED, 81%
believe maintaining sanitary processes and preventing disease in the food chain is important.
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