Chef slaughters chicks on TV, upsetting industry

After the show Jamie’s Fowl Dinners aired in the UK, sales of factory-farmed chickens reportedly plummeted. Jamie Oliver and fellow high-profile British chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall aim to draw attention to the way of mass-produced chickens destined for dinner tables.

News.co.au reports that just hours before the show screened in Australia, the Australian chicken meat industry reportedly said it was not relevant to Australia because chickens there are not raised in cages for meat.

“It is by no means true that what is clearly a show that is focused on the UK industry can easily and directly be applied to the Australian scene,” said Australian Chicken Meat Federation executive director Andreas Dubs, adding that all meat chickens are farmed and processed in accordance with Australian animal welfare codes of practice developed jointly by governments, animal welfare organisations and the chicken meat industry. “No meat chicken is ever raised in a cage.”

The show, which features a chicken being electrocuted and blood being drained from its neck to show the way the animals are slaughtered, has caused uproar in the UK.

Oliver and Fearnley-Whittingstall say part of the solution to improving the treatment of chickens lies in getting supermarkets to set a fair price for “ethically” reared birds.

Australian animal protection organisation Voiceless said people should not hide from the reality of modern-day chicken farming.