McDonald’s cruelly tramples animal welfare

Take action with us to help end the cruelty behind McDonald’s chicken.

👉 Call on McDonald’s now to finally join the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) and improve the living conditions of the chickens in their farms.

Call on McDonald’s now

In June 2025, GAIA investigators carried out investigations in several French farms supplying McDonald’s.

The footage reveals the true hell experienced by the chickens:

tens of thousands of birds crammed into sheds, deprived of natural light, often unable to walk or even stand back up.

These sufferings are not isolated cases: they are systemic. And McDonald’s bears responsibility for them.

The hell of McDonald's chickens

For more than thirty years, McDonald’s has been working with the agrifood giant Cargill, whose plant in Saint-Cyr-en-Val (Loiret, France) processes the chicken destined for McDonald’s restaurants across Europe.

In June 2025, GAIA investigators visited two French farms supplying McDonald’s.

The footage reveals horrific rearing conditions:

Ultra-fast-growing chickens, fattened in just 42 days, at the cost of severe health problems.
Breathing difficulties, tumors, and numerous dead animals.
Birds unable to stand up, drink, or eat, left to agonize on the floor.

What our cameras filmed is pure horror. The animals are living in a living hell.

Ann De Greef

CEO of GAIA

Launched in 2016 on the initiative of GAIA and 30 other animal welfare organizations in Europe, the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC) establishes standards to improve the welfare of broiler chickens. These standards aim to reduce the suffering of farm animals.

A giant shoe to symbolize cruelty

To denounce this unacceptable reality, GAIA is launching a shocking campaign across Belgium.

A huge red shoe, belonging to the mascot Ronald McDonald, will travel across the country and stop in front of several restaurants in Brussels, Antwerp, Leuven, Liège, Bruges, Ghent, Charleroi, and Namur.

Underneath this shoe, crushed chickens will remind people of the very real suffering of the animals behind every Chicken McNugget.

Fallacious environmental arguments

While Burger King, Subway, Domino's, and KFC have already signed the Better Chicken Commitment, McDonald's still refuses to commit to it.

The group cites alleged environmental arguments, claiming that these standards would be too costly or harmful to the environment.

However, McDonald's is basing its position on a biased and partial study.

On the contrary, from an environmental point of view, the BCC standards make it possible to:

reduce the use of antibiotics
improve litter quality
reduce water, energy, nitrogen, and ammonia consumption

McDonald's environmental arguments are opportunistic manipulation. It is an avoidance strategy to continue profiting from animal suffering.

Ann De Greef

CEO of GAIA

GAIA calls for accountability

GAIA demands that McDonald's immediately sign up to the Better Chicken Commitment and put an end to the cruelty inflicted on millions of chickens every year.

The organization is calling on Belgian consumers to make their voices heard and remind McDonald's that no meal justifies animal suffering.

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