BURGERFUEL'S POSITION ON ANIMAL WELFARE FOR CHICKENS

Yes. 100% of the chicken served at BurgerFuel is free-range and has been since 2014, when BurgerFuel became the first major fast casual restaurant chain in New Zealand to move nationwide to free-range chicken.

Our suppliers' free-range farms operate under SPCA Certified.

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SPCA Certified requires farms to meet a range of animal welfare standards above New Zealand's legal minimum requirements, including lower stocking densities, environmental enrichment, perching opportunities and additional requirements relating to litter, lighting and outdoor ranges.

Its standards are based on the Five Domains model of animal welfare, a holistic framework that considers both the minimisation of negative experiences and the promotion of positive welfare states.

Free-range farms supplying our chicken are independently audited against SPCA Certified standards, which exceed minimum animal welfare requirements established by the Ministry for Primary Industries.

"We work with industry to improve animals' lives today. This does not stop us challenging industry to do better tomorrow. SPCA will continue to work with producers and food brands to continually improve chicken welfare. Animal welfare is a journey, and ultimately, improving meat chicken welfare requires coordinated action across the whole supply chain, food businesses, retail sector, government, consumers and animal welfare organisations." Dr Arnja Dale, Chief Scientific Officer, SPCA

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SPCA Certified Welfare Plus+ is a new higher-welfare programme developed by SPCA New Zealand that builds on its existing SPCA Certified standards for free range chickens.

Welfare Plus+ introduces additional requirements across stocking density, catching, higher-welfare breeds, lighting, environmental enrichment, ventilation, housing and slaughter practices.

Importantly, the programme recognises that some improvements require wider industry and supply-chain change. Where changes such as adopting higher-welfare breeds or alternative stunning systems are not yet available or feasible in New Zealand, Welfare Plus + requires approved transition plans to move towards them.

BurgerFuel has chosen to work with SPCA and our suppliers towards achieving SPCA Certified Welfare Plus+ because we believe it provides a credible pathway for continuing to improve chicken welfare within the realities of the New Zealand poultry industry.

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No – and our decision to work towards SPCA Certified Welfare Plus+ demonstrates exactly that.

Animal welfare standards can and should continue to evolve. SPCA Certified has delivered meaningful welfare standards above New Zealand's minimum requirements, but neither BurgerFuel nor SPCA believes that means the job is finished.

Welfare Plus+ provides a pathway to go further, including lower stocking densities, additional requirements around enrichment and lighting, and transition plans towards higher-welfare breeds and alternative stunning systems as these become available and feasible in New Zealand.

We believe that's what genuine progress looks like: recognising what has already been achieved while continuing to work towards what can be improved next.

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The Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) is a voluntary set of animal welfare requirements for chickens raised for meat. It was developed by animal welfare organisations and is promoted internationally to food businesses.

The BCC seeks additional requirements across chicken farming and processing, including approved slower-growing chicken breeds, reduced stocking densities, changes to lighting and environmental enrichment, and specific processing and stunning methods.

BurgerFuel supports the underlying objective of improving chicken welfare. However, the commitment we are being asked to make requires these changes to be delivered by 2030.

Based on advice from our suppliers, we do not believe that timeframe is achievable in New Zealand. Moving to approved higher-welfare breeds and making the necessary farming and processing infrastructure changes would require significant industry-wide change, with some of these requirements not currently commercially available here at the scale BurgerFuel requires.

We support continued improvement – but we won'tcommit to a deadline without a credible pathway to deliver it.

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Both seek to improve chicken welfare and there is overlap between many of their requirements.

A key difference is how the pathway and timeframe for change are approached. The Welfare Plus+ programme sets higher standards and requires approved transition plans, while recognising that changes such as higher-welfare breeds and alternative stunning systems require coordinated industry change and must become available and feasible in New Zealand.

SPCA takes a collaborative approach, working with producers, food businesses, industry and government to help create the conditions needed to deliver those improvements.

BurgerFuel has chosen Welfare Plus+ because it provides a clear pathway for progress, with timelines and accountability, while recognising the practical realities of achieving meaningful change across the New Zealand poultry industry.

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No. We support its underlying objective of improving chicken welfare. We have simply chosen a different pathway to pursue that objective.

BurgerFuel is working towards SPCA Certified Welfare Plus+, which builds on existing SPCA Certified standards and introduces further requirements across a range of important welfare measures.

We believe this provides a credible pathway for continued improvement within New Zealand while recognising that some changes require wider industry, infrastructure and supply-chain development before they can practically be delivered.

Our position has never been that chicken welfare should stop improving. The question is how those improvements can be delivered responsibly, sustainably and at scale in New Zealand.

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Animals Aotearoa is an extremist animal advocacy group that campaigns for changes to animal welfare practices and corporate policies.

The organisation was established with international grant funding supporting its campaigning and corporate outreach activities. Its funders have included the Centre for Effective Altruism's Animal Welfare Fund, the Open Wing Alliance, Effective Ventures Foundation, Open Philanthropy and World Animal Protection.

Animals Aotearoa is also a member of the Open Wing Alliance, an international network of animal advocacy organisations that provides funding, resources and support for corporate campaigns.

Animals Aotearoa itself describes corporate pressure campaigns as a "tried and tested method" for securing commitments from businesses.

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No.

Animals Aotearoa has acknowledged directly to BurgerFuel that it cannot verify the footage as coming from a farm supplying BurgerFuel, and while we understand the footage is from 2024, Animals Aotearoa has provided no evidence that the farm depicted is SPCA Certified or if it is even footage captured from a New Zealand farm.

Using selective, outdated, and confronting farming footage as part of a campaign specifically targeting BurgerFuel creates the impression that the footage is recent and represents conditions within BurgerFuel's chicken supply chain, which we believe is misleading the public and designed to deliberately discredit SPCA certification.

We believe any organisation campaigning publicly about the practices of a particular business has a responsibility to clearly distinguish between verified evidence relating to that business and material being used to illustrate conditions elsewhere.

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We initially engaged with Animals Aotearoa in good faith to better understand the Better Chicken Commitment and its practical implications.

As discussions progressed, we did not believe continued engagement was constructive. We had significant unresolved questions around implementation, environmental impact, security of supply and cost, while at the same time being pressured to make the commitment and advised that BurgerFuel could face a negative public campaign if we did not do so.

We also realised that Animals Aotearoa has no voice within the industry or government, which is needed to deliver the systemic changes required.

Additionally, we do not agree with their approach and conduct and question the effectiveness of targeting businesses like ours that have long invested in higher-welfare, free-range chicken while non-free-range chicken continues to be widely sold elsewhere in the New Zealand market.

We have therefore chosen to direct our efforts towards working constructively with trusted partners like the SPCA on a pathway we believe can deliver meaningful welfare improvements in New Zealand.

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That is a question we believe is worth asking.

If the objective is to improve the welfare of as many chickens as possible, we think it's reasonable to ask why a business that has invested in 100% free-range chicken for more than a decade is being subjected to public pressure and protest while considerably larger volumes of conventionally farmed chicken continue to be sold elsewhere.

We cannot speak for Animals Aotearoa or explain how it determines which businesses to target.

What we can say is that BurgerFuel will not determine its animal welfare policy based on which commitment will bring an end to negative campaigning.

We believe constructive engagement between welfare organisations, producers, suppliers and food businesses is more likely to deliver lasting progress.

That belief is reflected in our decision to work with SPCA and our suppliers towards SPCA Certified Welfare Plus+.

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BurgerFuel has served 100% free-range chicken since 2014. More than a decade later, we're continuing to move forward.

We stand behind SPCA Certified, the independent standards under which our chicken is produced, and the work SPCA has done to improve animal welfare in New Zealand.

That's why BurgerFuel has chosen to work with SPCA and our suppliers towards SPCA Certified Welfare Plus+, supporting further improvements to chicken welfare through a pathway designed for the realities of the New Zealand poultry industry.

We will not make commitments simply because an extremist activist organisation is publicly pressuring us to do so. We will make them when they are credible, achievable and capable of delivering meaningful change.

For us, this isn't about choosing between the Better Chicken Commitment and better chicken welfare. It's about choosing the pathway we believe can actually deliver better chicken welfare in New Zealand.

We've backed higher-welfare, free-range chicken for more than a decade.

We're not stopping now.

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