Billions of chickens are suffering needlessly in the fast-food supply chain, according to a new World Animal Protection report.

The Pecking Order report, which was made available to Peoples Gazette on Tuesday, detailed that the majority of food industry companies were failing to implement meaningful changes to improve the welfare of chickens in their supply chain.

“The Pecking Order Report released by World Animal protection earlier today has revealed that majority of companies in the food industry are failing to implement meaningful changes to improve the welfare of chickens in their supply chains,” the report partly read.

According to the report, companies’ inaction threatens not only animal welfare but also human health because the overuse of antibiotics in farming has led to an outbreak of deadly superbugs.

Speaking about the development, Victor Yamo, Farming Campaigns Manager at World Animal Protection, stated that companies must be held accountable for animal welfare protection.

“The Pecking Order is committed to shining a light on the chicken meat industry and encouraging companies to improve their animal welfare policies. While progress has been made by some companies, others must be held accountable for their shameful lack of consideration of animal welfare,” Mr Yamo said.

The report detailed that most of the local companies assessed were performing poorly and very poor in their approaches to broiler chicken welfare in their supply chains and they lacked any animal welfare policies or commitments.

Additionally, it was discovered that Carrefour, a major supermarket chain in Kenya, came in second with an overall score of 17 per cent and that Kenchic, a popular fast-food chain in the country, was the company leading broiler chicken welfare with a percentage of 42 per cent.

According to the report, billions of chickens suffer from chronic pain, skin lesions, and even heart failure every year as a result of selective breeding and their crowded living conditions, which provide little environmental enrichment.