The government can’t be relied on to rear happy farm animals

Yesterday, the government abandoned its plans to scrap farm animal welfare codes, but if you think that means the cheap chicken you buy is ethical, you’re a bird brain.

The embarrassing u-turn was made after animal rights charities pointed out that asking the industry to come up with its own guidelines wasn’t going to work. The poultry industry is hardly going to introduce new rules that ensure chickens have more space to roam in if it might impact on profits. Pardon the pun, but it’s a bit like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas – they simply won’t.

But can you really trust the government to ensure high standards of farm animal welfare? Not really, is the simple answer. At the moment, animal rights are governed by EU laws. The statutory codes set out how the UK government would like the law to be interpreted. For example, EU law says that farmers should try other means before docking pigs’ tails.