In a bid to open up the RSPCA Assured scheme to more producers - and help many millions more birds benefit from overall higher welfare standards - we are allowing a three-year derogation for indoor meat chicken producers, to carry out one thin per flock.
This isn’t a decision we’ve taken lightly and the three-year period allows us to work with more producers to transition to a position of no thinning - to meet the RSPCA standard for no thinning, introduced in 2016.