Global Progress. Healthier Chickens. Stronger Choices

While change for animals can often feel frustratingly slow, lots of progress is being made for chickens worldwide. We’ve collected all the most exciting updates for you. Read on to find out what is happening and why, together, we can truly make the world a better place for chickens.

We believe that while animals continue to be farmed, they deserve to live good lives. That’s why momentum around one of the most important animal welfare issues is something worth celebrating and building on.

For decades, the global meat industry has bred chickens to grow at unnaturally fast rates. These fast-growing breeds gain weight so rapidly that their bodies struggle to keep up. Many birds develop lameness – prolonged pain that stops them from walking normally and performing natural behaviours – while others suffer breathing problems and organ failure. The suffering is built into their very genetics.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Healthier, more naturally-growing, chicken breeds exist, and when we demand better lives for these animals, we’re seeing food brands and chicken companies make this crucial change.

Change is happening, and you’re part of why that matters.

Real progress in action

Norway has taken a landmark step. The Norwegian meat industry announced that by the end of 2027, the country will become the first in the world to stop using fast-growing chicken breeds entirely, affecting over 70 million chickens raised for meat every year.

In 2023, the Danish government, with support from major political parties, agreed to phase out the public procurement of fast-growing chickens bred for meat, with new procurement standards set to take effect in 2026. Denmark also pledged support for an EU-wide ban on fast-growing breeds.

In the Netherlands, the transformation of the retail market is complete, with 100% of fresh chicken sold in Dutch supermarkets now coming from higher-welfare breeds.

The UK has also made some encouraging statements on breed change. The UK’s Animal Welfare Strategy includes “promoting the use of slow growing meat chicken breeds” as a key reform. DEFRA has indicated it will support voluntary industry initiatives, including moves away from fast-growing poultry breeds.

Thailand, the seventh largest chicken meat producer globally, is leading change in Asia. The Korat chicken, a Thai-developed slower-growing breed, has been central to welfare improvement projects where participating farms have eliminated antibiotics entirely and seen better bird health and higher income from higher-welfare chickens.

Sweden is seeing strong public momentum. Over 110 million chickens are slaughtered every year in Sweden, with around 99% currently being fast-growing breeds. But the good news, in May 2026, advocates delivered more than 65,000 signatures to the Swedish Parliament calling for a national ban. A recent poll found that seven out of ten Swedish voters already support a ban on breeding these birds.

Industry leaders prove a better way is possible

Worldwide, the chicken industry is responsible for the mass suffering of billions of birds. But some of the largest producers are starting to acknowledge the inherent suffering in the chicken breeds they have created and demonstrating that higher-welfare farming is possible.

In Denmark, Rokkedahl is leading the transition, while in France, LDC has committed to switching all of their own-brand chicken to higher-welfare breeds by 2028, affecting approximately 120 million birds annually, which represents about 12% of all French supply. LDC has also pledged to help other producers across France meet the same commitments, potentially shifting an additional 180 million birds to higher-welfare breeds by 2028.

Other producers have committed to the full Better Chicken Commitment – a set of science-based, world-leading criteria, the minimum that ensures that chickens bred for meat are of healthier breeds and have better living conditions. This includes TLC Landgeflügel in Germany, Fileni Group in Italy, and Ytterøykylling (Part of Berika) in Norway. They are either fully using healthier, slower-growing breeds or transitioning towards all their chickens being healthier breeds in better living conditions. Other chicken producers are willing to supply slower-growing birds to food businesses that want to buy them.

Certification schemes requiring healthier breeds

In the UK, RSPCA Assured requires healthier, slower-growing breeds, as does Red Tractor Enhanced.

Germany’s animal welfare certification label, “Für Mehr Tierschutz” (For More Animal Welfare), run by the German Animal Welfare Federation, is helping to drive this shift at the consumer level. Both the entry and premium tiers of the label require that farms use slower-growing breeds – making healthier breeds a baseline requirement rather than an optional extra, for any producer wanting to carry the certification.

In the Netherlands, the Beter Leven scheme – which meets the Better Chicken Commitment – has a 55–60% market share.

Across Europe, organic certification bodies are increasingly recognising the link between breed and welfare. Organic organisations in Finland, Poland, Spain and Austria have each put forward recommended broiler breeds suitable for organic production- all slower-growing – signalling a growing consensus that healthier breeds and higher welfare standards go hand in hand.

In Sweden, Krav, an organic labelling scheme, now requires that slower-growing breeds must fall below a specific a growth rate limit, and aim to make that limit even lower by 2032.

Closer to home, RSPCA Australia is updating their Meat Chicken Standard. Website updates they have made have already highlighted the importance of slower-growing breeds for chicken welfare. They currently certify over 90% of the chickens bred for meat in Australia, and their improvements will be a big boost to moving the dial on bird welfare in our region. In New Zealand, SPCA supports the need for breed change.

What happens next depends on all of us

When we care about how animals are treated, when we make that care visible, and when we keep pushing together, change happens. We’ve seen it at industry level. We’re seeing it at government level.

Millions of chickens worldwide are still forced to endure the suffering that the use of fast-growing breeds creates. You’re essential to shifting that.

You can support Animals Aotearoa as we push for better standards and advocate for an end to all farmed animal suffering. Decision makers can’t look away when we expose the suffering of chickens in their supply chain! Help us by contacting food brands, signing petitions and demanding better from these wealthy businesses who profit from chickens’ pain.

You’re showing producers and governments that people like you are watching, caring, and won’t stop until the changes stick.