Stores still selling factory farm chicken: NGO

Supermarkets in The Netherlands are still, despite promises to change the situation, selling broiler chickens. Animal rights organization Wakker Dier reports that most supermarket stalls are still full of factory farm chicken meat. 

The organization inspected ten shops of the ten largest supermarket chains in The Netherlands and concluded that customers are still mainly buying factory chicken. This, despite declarations from stores last year that the broiler chicken, or 'plofkip' in Dutch, should be a thing of the past.

Wakker Dier is a foundation that stands up for the state of chicken farming in the country, as well as other animals in the cattle industry. A broiler chicken grows fast, and is specially bred for consumption.

The branch that scored the best in Wakker Dier's inspection still filled the stalls with 58 percent of the broiler chickens. The worst supermarket did this with 95 percent broiler chicken.

In The Netherlands, supermarket chains such as Dirk, Jumbo and Emté were the worst offenders. Almost the entire chicken meat shelf was filled with factory farm meat according to the inspection. Market dominator Albert Heijn scores averagely, as do Aldi and C1000.

The Coop, Plus, Lidl and Deen did the best. These stores had the most choices of meats farmed as cruelty-free as possible. Biological chickens and chicken meat with between one and three Better Living stars from the Animal Protection foundation.