Marks & Spencer duck farm shame

Stop Press:

January 2006: In 2004, Viva! and its supporters persuaded Marks & Spencer to drop factory-farmed whole duck, after countrywide protests outside its stores and a blitz of media attention. This followed Viva!’s undercover investigation, which found atrocious conditions at their suppliers (detailed below). M&S assured us that they intended to roll out this decision to all of their duck meat products, and had a commitment to "promoting free-range poultry". However, a recent undercover investigation has revealed that not only has the chain cynically gone back on its word but it is still taking ducks from the same supplier we exposed two years ago, Manor Farm Ducklings. This new footage shows the usual litany of misery: thousands of ducks crammed into a shed, filthy and dejected; soaking litter; ducks blinded from lack of water with which to preen; and ducks with open, bleeding sores.

Last week, Viva!’s Justin Kerswell was interviewed on Sky News, where he openly criticised M&S and called on consumers to take the lead, and to boycott duck meat entirely.

M&S’s response has been to drop MFD Foods as a supplier, whilst they undertake an investigation. We’ve heard it all before. Please contact M&S to express your disgust that they have gone back on their word, and to tell them that they should drop factory farmed duck once and for all.

Click here to contact M&S – it only takes a second with our Virtual postcard!

Back in 2004, in another shocking Viva! undercover investigation, the reality of life for Britain’s millions of factory farmed ducks was once again exposed to public view. Covert filming at sites belonging to some of Britain’s biggest producers of duck meat  revealed the reality behind the fluffy Easter duckling image. Featured in a major article in the Daily Mail, Viva!’s investigation exposed Marks & Spencer as a customer of one of these companies and April 3rd 2004 saw Viva! supporters protesting outside nearly 200 M&S stores to expose the truth to their customers. Find out more about the protests by clicking here.

Modern farming techniques have turned the fluffy Easter duckling image into a sick joke. 19 million ducks were slaughtered in the UK in 2005 (in the mid 1970’s the UK duck population was barely a million). We know what these birds lives are really like because we have investigated several duck units. Twice we visited Manor Farm Ducklings, who then supplied Marks & Spencer. On our first visit, we saw thousands of fluffy, yellow ducklings in stinking, windowless sheds. Some could barely walk and dragged themselves across on their wings. Others had fallen on their backs and were unable to right themselves and this is how they would die - a horrible, stressful death. Many had already lost the battle to live and their little corpses were scattered amongst the straw. One duckling had fallen behind machinery and was hopelessly trapped - calling desperately for a mother who would never come.

Of course, none of these ducklings ever see their mothers. In the wild it’s a different story and mother birds are fiercely protective of their young – teaching them how to swim, preen their feathers, select food and keep warm. But the ducklings we filmed are unable to learn anything that is natural - there’s no sun, no wind, no rain to run off their backs and near-constant artificial light.

Birds that have evolved to eat, swim, dive, clean and play in water never even see it, except in their drinkers. One reason why it is so severely restricted is because ducks naturally like to splash water over their bodies. In factory farms, it causes choking ammonia to be released from the faeces-covered floor.

Yet it is vital to ducks’ health to immerse themselves in water but many cannot even dip their heads in it. The outcome is entirely predictable – dirty, bedraggled feathers that can make it difficult to keep warm, eye problems and even blindness.

On our second visit to Manor Farm six weeks later, the ducklings were already at slaughter weight - white feathered, beautiful but utterly dejected birds. The sight of thousands of them waddling around the shed in excreta, with no way of escape and nothing to do, was awful. Again, we found more corpses, including, some that appeared to have been there for a very long time, and more injured and dejected birds, some in obvious pain and emotional distress.

On another Manor Farm site, we found water even more pitifully restricted. Nipple drinkers, which were designed for chickens, meant that these poor birds had to battle for every drop of water – an incredible way to treat aquatic birds. No wonder corpses were piled high amongst the straw and slurry.

All Marks & Spencer duck meat comes from intensive units and must throw into doubt their claim to operate ‘strict selection criteria’. Their righteous statement: “Our customers have the right to expect that any animals involved in the production of Marks & Spencer food items are treated with respect” also rings more than a little hollow.

Sadly, they are not the only culprits as other supermarkets also sell intensively-reared duck meat. What glares out at you in the case of M&S is the gulf between the reality and their marketing hype.

The conditions we have uncovered show the reality of farming today: farmers know it, suppliers know it and Marks & Spencer know it. They just don’t want their customers to know it.