UK consumers favor higher welfare standards for turkeys

In a survey of over 2,000 adults in the UK, 34% responded that if they were going to buy a turkey for Christmas, they would choose one with a higher welfare label. Ten percent said that they would buy the cheapest and largest.

Conducted on behalf of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals farm assurance label Freedom Foods, the survey found that over half of respondents believed that more than 20% of turkeys reared in the UK were farmed to RSPCA standards, while 30% of respondents believed that the figure was 40%. Less than 7% of commercially-reared turkeys in the UK are farmed to RSPCA standards; however, 81% of respondents said that RSPCA standards should be applied to turkey farming.