‘Frankenwrap’ protest against Pret A Manger dodges Shoreditch for Bishopsgate

A £1 million animal welfare campaign that was due to land outside Pret A Manger’s Shoreditch High Street branch on Tuesday was moved at the last minute to the chain’s branch at 192 Bishopsgate, the campaigners said, owing to access and pavement restrictions.

The protest, organised by animal welfare charity Anima International, centred on a car-sized “Frankenwrap” — a mechanical sandwich stuffed with a whole feathered “frankenchicken” — as the centrepiece of what the charity describes as the most well-funded UK animal welfare campaign ever directed at a food company.

Posters of the frankenchicken are also appearing across more than 200 London Underground stations and 2,200 carriages.

The installation, unveiled on 16 June by animal welfare charity Anima International, is touring Pret stores in central London as part of what the group says is the most well-funded UK animal welfare campaign ever directed at a food company.

Posters of the frankenchicken are also appearing across more than 200 London Underground stations and 2,200 carriages.

A protest originally planned for Pret’s Shoreditch High Street branch was moved at the last minute to 192 Bishopsgate, the campaigners said, owing to access and pavement restrictions.

Pret a Manger has several branches across Hackney: in Shoreditch, Dalston, Hackney Central and Stoke Newington.

What is a ‘frankenchicken’?

“Frankenchicken” is an animal welfare term for selectively bred broiler chickens raised to reach slaughter weight in just 35 days.

Campaigners say the birds suffer severely as a result of their unnaturally rapid growth.

“The birds themselves pay the price with their bodies,” said Paul Retallick, Anima spokesperson.

“In many cases, the birds can’t even stand up towards the end of their lives because of how big they’ve become. There are also issues such as lameness, heart attacks and other conditions.”

A 2018 pledge

In 2018, Pret committed to phasing out fast-growing chicken breeds by 2026 as part of the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), an industry-wide initiative setting higher welfare standards on stocking density, breed selection, environmental conditions and slaughter methods.

Anima says that to date, Pret has made no progress at all on the breed transition.

“Pret promised eight years ago — they made a public pledge — to stop selling these chickens. But to date, they’ve made 0 per cent progress,” said Retallick.

He acknowledged that supply and logistics had played a part in Pret’s failure to deliver, but noted that other retailers, including Waitrose and M&S, had successfully made the switch.

Since January, more than 200 leading food companies have publicly committed to the BCC.

The protest, he said, was “a last-ditch effort to instigate change after repeated attempts to solve the issue behind the scenes failed”.

Alongside the installation, Anima has launched a public pledge inviting consumers to take a break from Pret. It gathered more than 10,000 signatures in its first 24 hours.

A new roadmap — or ‘kicking the can’?

On 17 April, Pret announced a new roadmap to adopt 50 per cent slower-growing breeds by 2031, and 100 per cent by 2032.

Anima has dismissed this as “simply kicking the can down the road”.

Connor Jackson, chief executive of Anima, said: “Pret’s so-called commitment is simply a cover for its continued inaction.

“Contrary to customers’ expectations, Pret is selling the exact same fast-growing chickens as KFC, Nando’s and Burger King, and there’s no reason to believe this will change.

“In the eight years since Pret committed to phasing out frankenchickens, it has not transitioned one single chicken to a higher welfare breed.”

Pret’s response

In response, Pret said it was the leading foodservice restaurant for chicken welfare in Compassion in World Farming’s (CIWF) ChickenTrack ranking, and that it used only higher-welfare British chicken across its entire menu.

The chain said breed compliance was the final step remaining, and that it had set out a clear roadmap to reach 100 per cent slower-growing breeds by 2032, developed in partnership with CIWF.

Retallick said Anima’s message to Pret was simple: “Do the right thing. That’s what your branding is. That’s one of your slogans. And this is the right thing to do.

“These birds suffer so much, and you can lead the way here and do what you ultimately signed up to do eight years ago.”