New polling sheds light on Australia’s perception of KFC and chicken
News
KFC in the UK and six European countries have committed to giving their chickens more room to move so they can perch, forage and flap their wings.
They’ve agreed to use slower growing breeds with fewer health problems. They’ve also promised to give chickens access to natural light. This is all part of the Better Chicken Commitment to give chickens better lives.
KFC Australia has NOT committed to giving their chickens better lives.
Chickens served by KFC Australia are among the millions of chickens raised in factory farms in Australia each year.
These chickens are tightly packed with up to 60 thousand birds being housed in a single shed. As the chickens grow larger, they face restrictions on their ability to express natural behaviours such as roaming around and flapping their wings.
How do Aussies feel about chicken?
Below are some of the findings around Australian attitudes towards KFC and chickens:
- 87% of Australians believe Australian KFC stores have higher welfare chicken than their counterparts in Germany and the UK, when the opposite is true;
- 58% of Australians eat chicken more than twice a week
- Almost half (42%) of Aussies are making a conscious effort to research and buy high welfare chicken products;
- 48% of Aussies would pay up to an extra half more, 7% would pay double the amount for higher welfare chicken products
- Meat chickens sold as a whole chicken will live for an average of just six weeks. 70% of Australians believe they live longer this, with half of those saying they live for 6 months or more;
- Millennials are the most frequent consumers of chicken and Baby Boomers the least. However, Millennials are more likely to buy high welfare chicken than Baby Boomers.
Research conducted by Pure Profile (December 2019), who surveyed 1,000 Australians, population proportionate to each state/territory.
It’s clear from this research that Aussie consumers; particularly millennials, are looking for higher welfare options when it comes to chicken. Companies like KFC need to start listening to the demands of their consumers. Providing higher welfare options is better for the chickens and it’s better for us.
KFC, and Australia, can do better
A better way is possible. As KFC in the UK have acknowledged, “animal welfare is essential for high quality food”. Forcing chickens to live in cramped and barren conditions is not high welfare. It’s bad for the chickens and it’s bad for us. Chickens deserve better and so do you. Call on KFC Australia to sign the Better Chicken Commitment.
To find out more about the Better Chicken Commitment, please visit the Better Chicken Commitment site
As KFC in the UK have acknowledged, “animal welfare is essential for high quality food. Forcing chickens to live in cramped and barren conditions is not high welfare.