Looks like a great opportunity! :)
Is there a deadline for this fundraising?
Will there be any updates on how much room is left as you receive donations?
Or, if we go past, how will the additional money be used? According to your priorities?
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your comment and questions.
We would like to get funding secured before the court hearing takes place on 22nd or 23rd October. Ideally as early as possible before this.
I will keep the post updated as we receive donations to show what our remaining funding gap is for this project. We are only looking to raise the amount indicated in the post.
We do have an overall funding gap for this financial year (currently £295k) which we are fundraising for separately. This match fund opportunity, however, only applies to this specific project, although we will have another match funding opportunity later in the year.
Just put my year to date donations into this- it seems like a really great opportunity. Thanks for sharing, and good luck!
Thank you so much Toby. This is a great help and gets us closer to our target - our funding gap is now down to £10,000.
Following posting this opportunity, we have received our first £500 donation, leaving £12,000 left to raise.
I will update the original post with the new totals as donations come in.
Thank you for your support.
Our funding gap now sits at £4,000
Our funding gap now sits at £9,000
Is there a public facing link for this current fundraising round? I'd rather share that with my uni vegan group than this page ^_^
Thank you for your message.
We are not currently publicly fundraising for this and, as such, there is not a public facing link, other than this post, or the related links contained within it (which are news articles rather than about this specific funding opportunity).
I believe this post can be shared and viewed without the need to be a member of the forum.
In October 2024 The Humane League UK (THL UK) will be heading to the High Court to challenge the legality of fast-growing breeds of chicken - Frankenchickens.
We need to raise £55k to fund the hearing.
The Jeremy Coller Foundation has pledged to match funding half of the costs up to £28k.
*UPDATED* We have now raised all funds required. Thank you for all your support with this.
Please contact me directly should you wish to donate and fight for 1 billion chickens.
‘Frankenchickens’ are selectively bred to grow unnaturally big and fast to maximise profits. They are destined to suffer extremely short and painful lives, suffer heart attacks, are often unable to walk and succumb to open sores from laying in their own waste. They grow 400% faster than is natural for their bodies, creating the biggest animal welfare crisis of our time.
In the UK alone, there are over 1 billion chickens raised for meat and over 90% are fast growing.
In 2020, we saw an opportunity to challenge the legality of Frankenchickens and began building a legal case against the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).
This culminated in a judicial review taking place at the High Court in May 2023. Getting to this point was a major success in itself as only 5% of cases are granted a full hearing. The judge stated that a full hearing of the facts regarding fast-growing chickens was in the public interest.
Represented by Advocates for Animals, we argued that fast-growing chicken breeds, known as Frankenchickens, are illegal under current animal welfare laws, as they suffer as a direct result of their breeding. Our case was bolstered by evidence given by the RSPCA which shows that fast-growing breeds of chicken do suffer, no matter the environment they’re raised in. This was despite Defra attempting to block the submission of the RSPCA’s evidence.
In May 2023, the High Court ruled that Defra hadn’t behaved unlawfully in their interpretation of the Welfare of Farmed Animals Regulation of 2007.
Shortly after the ruling we decided to appeal the court’s decision, and continue our three-year legal battle.
There is overwhelming scientific consensus that chickens raised for meat suffer due to their breed. Defra itself has offered no evidence to contradict the RSPCA report and even accepted that there are welfare problems with fast-growing breeds of chicken.
In October 2023, we found out that our appeal had been granted.
In October 2024, we will be back in court, in front of a new judge, to take on Defra to end the cruel use of Frankenchickens in the UK. Our two-day court hearing is due to start on either Tuesday 22nd or Wednesday 23rd October.
This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to force the Government, with one decision from an appeals court judge, to transform one billion innocent lives per year.
By virtue of being granted an appeal, our chances for a favourable final outcome have increased significantly. Being granted an appeal means that serious problems with the previous judge’s findings have been uncovered, and the judge approving our appeal thinks our case still has merit that needs final and careful deliberation.
A positive ruling would mean that the judge found Defra's interpretation of the Welfare of Farmed Animals Regulation of 2007 illegal, and would compel them to create a new policy on fast growing breeds of chicken, one that would invariably lead to farmers being disincentivized or even banned from keeping fast growing birds. Essentially, Defra would be forced by the courts to move against the use of fast growing breeds. What that looks like in terms of actual policy implementation would become clear in due course after the hearing.
Whilst we are confident that we have the facts to support our case and win, even if we don’t win, we have another opportunity to continue the debate and discussion about Frankenchickens in the public arena, to raise further awareness and garner more support as we continue to work toward a more compassionate world without fast-growing breeds of chicken.
During our previous court hearing we secured more broadcast media coverage in the two days of the case than we did in the previous 12 months, sparking a national conversation about the cruelty of breeding Frankenchickens and making it the single biggest media impact of any action since our inception, with a potential reach of over 350 million people.
We have been able to secure a cost cap from the court, which means, if we lose the case, we are only liable to pay Defra’s costs up to £30,000. Without this cost cap we would likely have not been able to continue with our appeal as Defra’s legal fees could be in excess of £300,000.
Regardless, £30,000 is still a significant sum. We will also have our own legal fees, which have been estimated at £20,000 (even with one Barrister working on the case fully pro bono). We are also budgeting £5,000 for on-the-ground activities on the day to increase awareness and impact, meaning we will need £55,000 (approximately $73k) in total to fund the appeal.
The Jeremy Coller Foundation has pledged to match fund up to £28,000 of these costs, providing that we can find the funding to match this.
*UPDATED* We have secured all funds required to benefit from the full match funding pot and to cover our costs.
This is a true match, as we will only receive the equivalent we raise in donations.
This will also be the first time that we have received funding from The Jeremy Coller Foundation.
Should you wish to making a donation to maximise the match funding pot and help us fight for chickens then please contact me directly:
The Humane League UK is a UK registered charity working to end the abuse of animals raised for food.
Whilst we’re still a fairly young organisation, we have already achieved some big wins for the animals. This is one of the reasons why we, as part of THL, are recommended by Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) as one of the most effective animal protection organisations in the world.
THL is the only organisation to have been recommended every year in the history of ACE’s reviews. Their continued endorsement underscores our effectiveness and commitment to creating a better world for animals. They have evaluated us to be an ‘exceptional’ example of effective advocacy:
‘Giving to THL is an excellent opportunity to support initiatives that create the most positive change for animals.’
I'm happy to share that we have raised all the remaining funds needed to benefit from the full match funding pot. This means we will be able to cover all the costs of the legal challenge.
Following the forum post we received many enquiries which led to donations from five individuals equating to £12,500.
We are so grateful to you all and to the EA community for your continued support.
We will have another match funding opportunity in November which we will share with the forum in due course.