The Humane League is a vegan animal rights charity that originated in the US in 2005 and expanded into the UK in 2016. Their aim is to reduce the most amount of suffering for the largest number of animals.

Their last campaign in the UK was to eliminate cages from the supply chains of companies using eggs. 80 companies committed to phasing out cages including Noble Foods who have 4.3 million chickens in the UK.

Their focus has now come to broiler chickens (those raised for meat). Along with a coalition of other animal groups The Humane League is asking companies using chickens in their supply chains to sign up to the Better Chicken Commitment. This outlines a number of requirements to improve chicken welfare.

The most important factor relates to the breed. The breeds permitted under the Better Chicken Commitment grow slower so the birds are able to support their own weight and are less likely to have physical issues that a lot of the chickens raised for meat suffer from today.

The following companies have signed up to the Better Chicken Commitment

Marks and Spencer

Unilever

Danone

Nestlé

Zizzi

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Coco Di Mama

Pret a Manger

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There is a notable market leading company missing from this list… McDonalds.

McDonalds uses millions of chickens in their supply chains globally and if they agreed to the commitment it would improve the lives of so many chickens and also encourage other companies to follow suit.

McDonalds only use free-range eggs and organic milk so it is hypocritical that they are not committed to improving the welfare of the chickens in their supply chains.

The Humane League has carried out a week of action this week encouraging McDonalds to make the change and do the right thing.

You can find everything about the campaign at https://www.ImNotLovinIt.co.uk.

The events started off on Saturday where a group of protesters toured 14 McDonalds locations in London, educating the public and speaking to individual store managers.

On Tuesday we took our own Ronald to McDonalds HQ in East Finchley where we encouraged employees to throw wet sponges at him. Unfortunately none of them took us up on the offer!

The public were more than happy to have a go when we took the stocks to Kings Cross and which was reported on in The London Economic.

On Wednesday a flash mob danced their way from HQ to Leicester Square.

On Thursday we delivered our petition with over 236,000 signatures to HQ along with a large “unhappy” meal.

You can see the videos of the week’s events on The Humane League UK Facebook page.

We need to keep the pressure on McDonalds, you can help by contacting them on social media, emailing, phoning and speaking to your local store manager. Go to https://www.ImNotLovinIt.co.uk/ to add your voice to the cause.

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