Images that come from pig farms of a Lidl brand supplier, chicken breasts sold with a meat disease and investigations into the entire poultry industry which would always concern Lidl. But Lidl isn’t there warns Being Animalsclaiming that the contents published by the association are “tendentious and suggestive, as well as tainted by malicious and very serious omissions”.
In particular – after two years from the start of the international #LidlChickenScandal campaign – Lidl Italia is now asking in a formal letter to share the identification data of the farms involved in the latest investigations in order to carry out its own checks and accusesbeing Animals of wanting to damage only the image and profits of the Lidl brand and claims that we only act to demand with disparaging methods that they comply with the ECC’s request.
What happened
As we know and as we have always said,essereanimalihasdisclosedshockingvideoscomingspecificallyfrom two farms associated with a large food groupwhich supplies the supermarket chain with products based on chicken and of pig: these are testimonies that show terrible mistreatment of animals, which the association had already taken steps to report to the authorities.
Images that once again demonstrate how the discount giant’s public policies on animal welfare are still far from guaranteeing at least the elimination of the main causes of suffering for farmed animals in its supply chain.
For two years the Open Wing Alliance, an association of over 80 animal protection organizations (which also includes Migliore Animali), has been carrying out an information campaign against Lidl asking for a concrete commitment to adopt better breeding standards in their chicken supply chains as required by the European Chicken Commitment (ECC).
Two years in whichbeing Animali invited Lidl Italia to a discussion on the improved standards for chicken breeding also indicated by EFSA, without ever receiving any type of response, unlike what happened in other countries such as France, where Lidl has signed up to the ECC, either in the UK, where it has committed to giving more space to animals by early 2025, or more recently in Germany, where it has published a policy aligned with the ECC’s demands to be implemented by 2030.
We have always been in possession of the evidence linking the farms from which the images that we have disseminated to suppliers of Lidl Italia branded products come from and we would have willingly shared them in a programmatic meeting, if they had given us the opportunity – explains Simone Montuschi, President ofessereanimali – the reason why we have not published this information so far is because we do not want to risk the discussion moving from Lidl’s responsibilities towards its suppliers to limiting the issue to individual episodes.
In the letter sent to the association, Lidl Italia states that Being Animals should have addressed its requests directly to the farmers, but the problems that emerge from the images taken (and published) in recent years in not only Italian, but also Spanish, German and English, show how the problems reported are intrinsic to intensive farming, from the use of fast-growing breeds to high breeding densities. Problems that cause enormous suffering for animals and which could be addressed by the giant by joining the ECC.
È Animali decided to respond transparently to Lidl Italia’s requests and for this reason it shared the evidence linking the latest images published between September and November with some of the farms that supply one of their suppliers: the Martini Group.
But now we want to launch a challenge to Lidl Italia: let’s go together to one of its stores to evaluate the incidence of white striping and let’s collaborate on the development of a multi-year plan that allows us to eliminate the main causes of suffering of chickens. On our part there is full availability, only through transparency and collaboration will we be able to build a better and truly more sustainable future for everyone, concludes Montuschi.
