December 2008

'Freedom Foods' turkeys 'covered in blood'

Undercover investigators expose cruel suffering of thousands of birds this Christmas.

VIEW FILM FOOTAGE HERE

THOUSANDS of turkeys destined for dinner tables across the UK have been discovered in 'appalling' conditions during a recent undercover investigation.

Many birds filmed by vegetarian campaigning group Viva! had leg deformities and injuries, with some birds demonstrating difficulty walking. Others had facial injuries including bloody, wounded snoods.

The Midlands farm, owned by Attwells and Seafield Pedigrees claims to be RSPCA Freedom Foods Accredited*.

Findings have prompted tough criticism of the scheme, from Viva! as it supposedly represents high animal welfare standards.

In a conversation with the company, a member of Seafield Pedigrees staff told Viva! that it supplies Freedom Foods with turkeys. Viva! believe they have evidence which suggests the company has contravened Defra welfare regulations on a number of levels, as well as breaking Freedom Foods codes.

The Freedom Foods ethos is cited as a 'dedication to improving farm animal welfare' – boasting 'Five Freedoms' standards; freedom from: discomfort, pain, injury or disease, freedom to express normal behaviour, freedom from fear and distress, hunger and thirst.

Yet Viva! found turkeys so tightly packed in sheds they could not move or spread their wings – many were trampled as birds surged into one another. One bird was found with a severe facial deformity – abscesses on both sides of the lower beak, with one side having burst. Footage shows the turkey covered in blood, mixing with other birds, posing risk of contamination. One dead turkey was found, surrounded by other birds, who were also at risk of disease. Feed lines were broken and sharp, frayed metal wire was found on the floor, leaving turkeys open to injury.

Among the violations of Freedom Foods regulations as set out by the RSPCA perceived by the investigators, included the absence of perches and hay for the birds, meaning that all they had to perch on was their feeding lines.

Zephie Begolo Viva! campaigner, says: "The conditions found on the Seafield Pedigrees farm are typical of intensive turkey farms up and down the country. Birds live in fear and distress, they cannot express their natural behaviour and live in cramped, filthy conditions which make them susceptible to disease. One of the most shocking aspects of this case is the lack of regard for the health of the birds – one of which was bleeding when our investigators filmed him and had clearly been suffering for some time. In addition, scant regard had been paid to the security of the turkeys since they were surrounded by safety hazards.

"This goes to show that consumers should not be conned into thinking that they are having a compassionate Christmas by buying supposedly higher-welfare turkeys – no matter what the accreditation or supposed standards, the birds will always suffer in intensive farming and will endure violent deaths.

Evidence from the investigation, within the last fortnight has been submitted to Worcestershire Trading Standards and Worcester Animal Health Office.

"We would urge anyone concerned about animal welfare to make the real ethical choice this Christmas – and go vegetarian or vegan. It is the only way to ensure that animal welfare is being put first in your name," added Ms Begolo.

Viva! have a variety of meat-free Christmas recipes available for free on their website www.viva.org.uk/christmas. Their Peace to All campaign is taking to the streets of the UK where thousands of people will sign a pledge not to eat turkey this Christmas.

23 Jun 2008

'Freedom Farm cruelty' exposed

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THIS horrific picture shows the appalling conditions suffered by birds at a chicken farm backed by the RSPCA.

Thousands of birds are shown in a cramped barn at an RSPCA Freedom Farm.

The dead and dying hens are kept in dark, cramped surroundings on Pound Farm in North Tuddenham, Norfolk.

See more pictures of the birds' suffering:

And shockingly a farm worker in charge of the animals admitted he hadn't let the chickens outside enough as their eggs get DIRTY and workers are too LAZY to clean them.

Many of the hens show clear signs of suffering and neglect.

Their symptoms include extreme feather loss and redness - all typical of a life spent in prolonged cramped and stressful environments.

Dying

The farm is protected by one of the most respected trademarks in farming - the RSPCA Freedom Food standard.

But the shocking images will offer little comfort to shoppers who only buy premium barn-laid eggs, believing the hens that lay them are kept in healthier living conditions.

It is the latest scandal to hit the chicken farming industry, following celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's hard-hitting campaign earlier this year.

The TV chef, 33, showed how consumer's demand for cheap goods meant more than 90 per cent of chickens bred for meat and 60 per cent reared for egg production were still brought up in cramped and cruel conditions.

Crusade ... Jamie Oliver

In this latest insight into the fowl industry, captured by an undercover reporter, RSPCA directives, which should protect the birds on the farm, state that hens kept in barns should be outside by 9am at the latest every day.

Undercover reporter Jason Farrell spent several days on the farm gathering evidence for Five News.

He said: There are a lot of birds cramped together. They are also undernourished.

There are dead birds and they have been there a long time because they are decomposed and some carry a film of dust.

RSPCA regulations state that birds should be removed at the very latest within 24 hours of dying. Checks should be done three times a day."

He added: There are also quite a lot of dying birds there, which should be segregated from the other birds and put out of their misery.

The farm is supported by the RSPCA and paid for by animal lovers.

People pay a premium for these eggs. They think that animals on this farm will be living in far healthier conditions.

But the reality is that they have fallen far short of health guidelines.

Vet Sally Rakham Hawkedon, said the hens were clearly experiencing stress-related feather and weight loss.

And the RSPCA said it carried out a routine inspection on the farm in March and it failed on overcrowding.

It exceeded the limit of 4,000 birds in one barn - the limit set for it to pass the Freedom Foods accreditation.

The inspection also criticised the farm for having no emergency plan in place and no training record in place for staff.

Yet despite its many failings, it still maintained its accreditation as a Freedom Food supplier and its products continue to be on sale in supermarkets.

RSPCA scientific officer Alice Clarke said: "The scheme itself is assessed yearly, they do have the spot check and when this has come up we have gone in as soon as we can to have a look at those birds and check the welfare of them.

This farmer has shown in terms of the health of those birds that he's applying those standards by seeking vetinary advice."

Farmer Simon Dann refused to comment.

The RSPCA has suspended a broiler chicken farm in Somerset from its Freedom Food scheme pending an investigation.

In response to Five News' footage footage of a Freedom Food accredited farm in Somerset, the RSPCA has issued the following statement:

"The RSPCA is angry and appalled that anyone would let animals get into this state, and we have immediately suspended the farm and launched a full investigation.

"The farmer's employer recognises there has been a serious breakdown of management on the farm. The farmer is currently battling with serious personal difficulties which appear to have overwhelmed him, however this is no excuse for the condition of some of the animals.

"In rare cases individual farms or farmers can let us down, but for every animal shown on covertly-filmed video, there are millions more who've had a better life, thanks to the RSPCA's welfare standards.

"Freedom Food has more monitoring visits and inspections than any other assurance scheme in this country. It is a mark of a good scheme that immediate action is taken if ever a problem arises, and that's what we have done."

Popular ethical food labels which claim to reassure consumers of high standards of animal welfare are criticised tonight in a TV programme which shows shocking scenes of neglect on some farms including ducks being punched, kicked and thrown around by staff.

Among the brands singled out is the Freedom Food scheme, launched by Britain's largest animal welfare organisation, the RSPCA , and used to certify meat products sold at a premium through Britain's main supermarket chains.

Secret filming at one Norfolk farm which claims to operate "the very highest standards of welfare" and participates in the Freedom Food scheme, reveals numerous injured and diseased turkeys, with sightings last month of rotting corpses in a "dead bin" which was not sealed, in breach of the government's emergency control order .

An investigation by Tonight with Trevor McDonald - being screened on ITV this evening - uses secret filming by an animal welfare group to reveal apparent maltreatment of animals at four Norfolk farms where thousands of animals are slaughtered every year and eventually supplied to supermarkets as "ethically produced" food which can cost at least twice as much as the non-ethical equivalent.

A former RSPCA council member claims on the programme that the inspection back-up provided by the RSPCA for the Freedom Food scheme is flawed because it employs too few people.

One in 20 farm animals in Britain is reared under the Freedom Food scheme, but there are only 10 full-time officials to police it which means that farms can go up to 15 months without an inspection. The latest findings follow investigations by BBC Watchdog and Channel 4 Dispatches, in which animal rights campaigners warned that Freedom Food was effectively large-scale industrial farming.

The latest filming shows conditions at White House farm in Blo Norton, Norfolk, which reared ducks for Kerry Foods, suppliers to Morrisons, Somerfield, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Asda, Marks & Spencer, Iceland, Spar and Londis.

It shows several dead ducks which appear not to have been removed properly - including one that looks flattened - alongside filthy drinking water and a distressed duck suffering from torticollis, a condition involving a twisted neck.

The farm was owned by AE Button, a subsidiary of Kerry Foods, at the time of filming last spring, but is now owned by Green Label, whose director told Tonight he has shut it down. Cherrydene farm in Bergh Apton, Norfolk, is not part of the Freedom Food scheme but produced ducklings for Manor Farm Ducklings which supplies to Morrisons, Asda and Macro. The stills of footage last autumn show ducks being rounded up and crated. One member of staff punches a duck while others pick them up by the throat, throw them and kick them.

At Mary farm, Rakheath, Norfolk, where pigs reared under the Freedom Food scheme are supplied to Sainsbury's and Waitrose, footage shows pigs in wet and heavily soiled conditions with no straw or dry, comfortable rest area.

Hall farm in Caston, Norfolk, rears turkeys under the Freedom Food scheme for Traditional Norfolk Poultry, which supplies Asda and the Co-op, but filming revealed clear breaches of the government's regulations on disposal of dead birds. The farm said it is ceasing turkey production.

In an interview on the programme, Celia Hammond, a former RSPCA council member, says the organisation does not employ enough people to inspect farms properly and urges the RSPCA to withdraw from the scheme: "They can't adequately monitor the number of animals."

Last night an RSPCA spokesman said the farms involved had been suspended from the scheme and that it took the allegations very seriously.

The RSPCA's director general, Jackie Ballard, admitted in the programme: "There were some examples of very poor animal welfare on those farms and of animals that were very clearly suffering and that's not good enough.

"We have the most monitoring of any of the labelling schemes that there are in this country. But we don't sit on a farm 24 hours a day monitoring, so inevitably sometime things will go wrong."

She said the five freedoms were "aspirations" rather than guarantees: "The Freedom Food scheme, you know what our aspiration is? Our aspiration is that that becomes legal minimum standards."

Hard-up RSPCA finds thousands to hunt for mole

THE RSPCA is spending tens of thousands of pounds on an investigation into its ruling council after a member spoke anonymously to the BBC about the charity's Freedom Food scheme.

The society claims that it has lost a "substantial" amount of money in cancelled donations, legacies and memberships after an edition of the television programme Watchdog in which the council member took part.

The anonymous member condemned the scheme, which offers farmers a higher price for their produce in return for improved welfare standards, as a failure and incompatible with the charity's remit to protect animals.

The programme, broadcast in October, featured undercover film at Freedom Food farms which appeared to show that some participants were failing to deliver the promised "freedoms" and raised doubts about the RSPCA's monitoring of the scheme.

Council members, who are elected by the charity's membership, are not allowed to speak to the media without clearance from the RSPCA's press office. The investigation is to identify who co-operated with the BBC.

The decision to investigate, even though there is a shortage of funds at the charity, was passed on the casting vote of Mike Tomlinson, the charity's chairman, at a heated closed meeting of the council on Dec 12.

An attempt by some members of the council to cap the cost of the investigation at £36,000 was defeated by one vote. An RSPCA source has estimated that it could cost as much as £90,000.

Confidential minutes of the meeting, seen by The Telegraph, reveal a rift in the council over the investigation and debate over the clause which stops council members speaking to the media.

There was argument about the Freedom Foods scheme, particularly the decision to sign a deal to provide eggs to the McDonald's hamburger chain and the lack of information available about farms involved.

A member of the council said: "It's ridiculous, people are giving money to the RSPCA for animal welfare and this is how it is being spent.

"The same day we were talking about the deficit and millions of pounds in cuts. All the RSPCA's plans have been cut back yet money for this investigation was voted straight through."

A spokesman for the RSPCA denied that there were any cuts but confirmed that plans had been put on hold. She said: "Money we would invest in new projects is being held up for a matter of weeks when it will be reviewed. The money for the investigation hasn't been fixed but will be approved by the treasurer.

"It's good corporate governance to investigate this. We are under pressure from the Charity Commission to investigate these leaks."

The spokesman said the councillors should raise criticisms in the proper forum, not through the media.

She added that the RSPCA had made a complaint to the BBC about Watchdog and defended the record of the Freedom Food scheme, which is run by a company wholly owned by the RSPCA.

She said: "As far as we are concerned the scheme is a success and it is looked at regularly to ensure the standards are maintained."

The investigation into who spoke to the BBC has already started and all council members have been asked to sign a witness statement declaring that they were not involved.

A spokesman for the Hillside Animal Sanctuary, which did undercover filming for Watchdog, said: "The RSPCA should be spending money on improving the welfare of animals in its Freedom Food scheme, not on this investigation. I'm not surprised that people have stopped giving money to the RSPCA."