Few barns explain where Danish society draws its welfare line better than the one near Løgstør in North Jutland. A screen inside shows three hours of darkness a day. Danish rules require at least six.
Christian Tvergaard, who runs one of the country's larger broiler operations, told an undercover worker that light management makes birds eat more so they gain weight. "Yes, that's what it's about," he says on TV 2's hidden recordings.
The footage came from a mole who worked two days a week on the farm during a filming period that ran from 19 May to 8 July. It shows birds that cannot stand, some lying on their backs with legs cycling in the air. Tvergaard declined an interview. In a written reply he says he looks inward, accepts he made wrong decisions on the light programme and barn routines, and has tightened procedures and shift planning since.
A breed built for speed
His 220,000 chickens make the holding the 20th largest in Denmark by animal count, according to the Central Husbandry Register (Det Centrale Husdyrregister, the national livestock database). The average Danish flock is just under 77,000 birds. There are 263 active broiler holdings, 26 of them organic.
The birds are Ross 308, the standard breed in Danish poultry production and the one the industry calls the turbo chicken. They go from about 50 grams to 2 kilograms in roughly 33 days, or 63 grams a day. The European Food Safety Authority recommends growth rates no higher than 50 grams a day.
Two University of Copenhagen professors tie the leg damage to breeding for speed. Björn Forkman, who teaches veterinary and animal science, says the pain is severe enough that birds risk dying of hunger or thirst because they cannot move. Peter Sandøe, professor of bioethics, calls gait problems the direct result of a breeding system aimed at fast growth. Charlotte Berg at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences agrees the risk travels with the production model.
A government working group has concluded that fast growth is linked to worse welfare than slower growth. Landbrug & Fødevarer (the Danish Agriculture and Food Council) and Dansk Erhverv sat on that group and questioned whether slow-growing breeds deliver a clear gain. Dyrenes Beskyttelse, the animal welfare society, walked out in protest.
Five police reports and a shifting majority
Inspectors are finding problems beyond this one farm. Nearly one in three poultry welfare inspections this year ended with a sanction, according to Fødevarestyrelsen (the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration). Most were formal reprimands. Five broiler producers have been reported to police, the highest single-year figure in agency records running from 1 January 2016 to 20 August 2026.
TV 2 obtained broiler inspection reports from one of those cases. Inspectors found more than 100 birds that could not stand or walk, plus over 30 dead birds and elevated mortality in the barn.
Jeppe Mouritzen, poultry chair at Landbrug & Fødevarer, says the footage makes an impression and is not what the sector wants seen. He still calls general welfare good. Asked about five police reports in a single year, he concedes the problem is not isolated.
Berlingske reported this week that a majority is forming in the Folketinget (Denmark's parliament) to ban production of the fast-growing bird.
Mouritzen's own answer, that he believes it looks fine everywhere but cannot say for sure, is the weakest sentence in the case. Expect a phase-out vote or a mandated switch to slower-growing breeds before the Folketinget breaks for summer. Expect Denmark to become the reference point other Nordic regulators cite when they face the same question.