Animal welfare:because people are protesting against Lidl all over Europe

In seven European countries, from 30 October to 5 November, a week of protest actions against the well-known supermarket chain took place Lidl.The accusation is of extreme cruelty to animals, as highlighted by several undercover investigations conducted in recent years.In the farms linked to the distribution giant, investigations have revealed, for example, the constant presence of sick and deformed chickens and, in general, hundreds of millions of poultry that suffer systematically across the continent.Demonstrations took place in the UK, Germany, Portugal, Austria, Poland, Sweden and Italy.In Milan and Bologna, representatives of the organizationessereanimali also sponsored the countryside European #LidIChickenScandal, which asks the company to make a concrete commitment to eliminate suffering of chickens in its supply chain.

The primary objective of the organizations that participated in the protests is to inform public opinion about the enormous critical issues inherent in the genetic selection system of broiler chickens, which focuses on accelerated growth with the aim of rapidly increasing the animal's muscle mass.Fast-growing chickens, which reach ideal slaughter weight in just 30-40 days and are predisposed to serious problems and illnesses which the industry dismisses as "production diseases" (among which heart failure, lameness, bone deformities, muscle diseases and sudden death stand out), are the land animals most exploited by industry.In 2020 alone, they were slaughtered approximately 70 billion chickens, of which over 500 million in Italy.A series of reports have shed light on the violence that animals suffer from operators and the very poor hygienic conditions in which they live.Animal protection organizations part of the Open Wing Alliance coalition have raised more to date half a million signatures to encourage German supermarkets to stop selling intensively bred broilers, underlining how this is also risky for human health:according to oneanalyses carried out in Germany, in fact, 71% of the chicken meat samples examined were contaminated by bacteria that resist the action of antibiotics.

Being Animals, the association leading the protest in Italy, denounced in a note "Lidl's inactivity after the publication, in the last year, of six investigations into alleged mistreatment of chickens in intensive farming associated with its suppliers in Spain, Italy, Germany on two occasions (in Haselünne and Löningen), Austria and the United Kingdom”.In one petition online which currently has almost 49 thousand subscriptions, the association highlighted how Lidl, which claims to implement policies for the defense of animal welfare, is "among the companies that have not yet committed to signing the European Chicken Commitment", a document drawn up by around thirty NGOs for the protection of animals which identifies the minimum standards to be implemented in broiler farms, "through which they could guarantee higher standards to chickens raised by their suppliers, saving them the suffering inherent in intensive farming".Last Thursday 5 October, the activists of Being Animals had interrupted peacefully the intervention of the Communication and CSR Manager of Lidl Italia, Alessia Bonifazi, during the CSR and social innovation exhibition in Milan, to ask that Lidl Italia (as previously done by Carrefour, Cortilia and Eataly) also sign the commitment.

«Across Europe, activists from dozens of organizations have come together to take a stand against Lidl and the terrible cruelty documented on animals in their supply chain – he declared Brenda Ferretti, campaigns manager ofessereanimali –.Lidl must put an end to the worst practices for the sake of millions of farmed chickens and consumers who demand more and more greater attention towards animals".

[by Stefano Baudino]