One of my friends in the media passed me a leaflet last week, a Morrisons tract designed to persuade me that they only use happy chickens which get to live normal lives. Here's the cover, which should really have been called Come and meet the meat...
Inside, however, we see what this actually means. Those normal avian lives include.. playing football.
I know it looks like I've Photoshopped that ball into the picture but the original is available for inspection. Oddly, the text contains no explanation, which makes me think it's as realistic and accurate as this chicken-football video, and that the reality of Morrisons' average chicken's life is still likely to be more like this.
Indoor football, at that.
Actually, as with many animals in captivity, stuff to play with is a prerequisite for their welfare. Part of the RSPCA's guidelines for chicken are that they should have stimulus - which includes places to perch and toys.
If you have moral objections to eating meat, then surely it's preferable that the meat being raised for others to eat, is done so as kindly as possible?
The fact that supermarkets feel they need to make concessions towards welfare to use as a marketing tool, proves that the nation is moving on. I'd rather the supermarkets engaged in an arms war over livestock rearing conditions than a race to the bottom for price.
View that chicken as progress.
It's already brighter than Beckham and now it can try it's foot at the beautiful game too.