No one is watching: Sweden’s chicken slaughterhouses escape inspection
Every year, Project 1882 requests animal welfare inspection reports from Swedish authorities. These reports reveal a troubling pattern: Almost no inspections have been carried out at chicken slaughterhouses. Project 1882 can now confirm that this lack of oversight has persisted for several years, raising serious concerns about how chickens in Sweden are treated in their final moments.
County Administrative Boards are formally responsible for animal welfare inspections in Sweden. But in practice, they rely heavily on reports from the Swedish Food Agency. Official veterinarians from the agency are stationed at all major slaughterhouses and are expected to report any welfare violations to the county boards.
Project 1882 has reviewed inspection records from the four largest chicken slaughterhouses in Sweden since 2021. The findings are alarming: County boards have conducted no more than two physical inspections per year at these facilities.
Instead, many of the Food Agency’s reports are handled administratively − through phone calls or emails – rather than through on-site inspections. These administrative actions rarely lead to formal measures or sanctions, unlike physical inspections, which are far more likely to result in accountability.
− It is completely unacceptable that repeatedly reported deficiencies do not lead to any inspections. Chicken slaughterhouses cannot be allowed to be a lawless land for millions of animals every year, says Benny Andersson, CEO of Project 1882.
For comparison, county boards received over 15,000 complaints about inadequate animal welfare in 2024, according to the Swedish Board of Agriculture. These complaints mostly come from individuals and concern individual animals, while the Swedish Food Agency’s reports often involve thousands of animals.
− The County Administrative Boards in Sweden urgently need clearer guidance and more resources to prioritize the animals that are the most exploited and suffer the worst. This is especially critical in light of the widespread welfare violations at chicken slaughterhouses – violations that have become so routine they are now dismissed as standard practice, says Benny Andersson.
Recent inspection reports reveal a disturbing trend: Injured chickens, who may be left to suffer until the moment of slaughter, are rarely addressed by county boards – whether through physical visits or administrative follow-ups. In many cases, companies are simply asked to explain why a breach occurred, and those explanations are often accepted without further action. According to Project 1882, this reflects a deeply concerning lack of meaningful oversight at Swedish slaughterhouses.
− When welfare violations at slaughterhouses are brushed off as routine, authorities are not only failing the animals – they are also failing to uphold the very laws designed to protect them. In light of this, it is no surprise that public trust in Swedish animal welfare is rapidly eroding, concludes Benny Andersson.
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Frankenchickens grow so quickly that they experience pain, become ill, and die prematurely. Many develop mobility disorders before their lives end between 35 and 42 days of age. By then, they have grown 50 times their size since hatching.
