After being sexed, billions of innocent baby birds are killed shortly after birth - usually by grinding or gassing. Officials say this means about 45 million male chicks die every year in Germany alone.
BBC NEWS: ‘A top German court has ruled that it is still lawful for poultry and egg producers to kill unwanted male chicks. The ruling, by Germany’s Federal Administrative Court on Thursday, backs companies on a temporary basis until an alternative can be found. Mass-culling of male chicks is common practice in industrialised farming around the world. After being sexed, billions of the baby birds are killed shortly after birth – usually by grinding or gassing. Officials say this means about 45 million male chicks die every year in Germany alone.
In 2013, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia issued a decree banning hatcheries from killing chicks. Two egg hatcheries in the state then appealed against this. Paragraph one of Germany’s Animal Welfare Act states that: “No-one shall inflict pain, suffering or harm on a pet without a reasonable cause.” A lower court ruled that killing for food production constituted “reasonable” grounds, leading to the latest high court challenge.
The German Minister for Agriculture, Julia Klöckner, has described the practice as “ethically unacceptable” and called for its ban. But the high court in Leipzig confirmed it will remain permissible until alternative methods of sex determination in eggs are introduced. The ruling means that economic reasons alone do not constitute “reasonable” grounds – but stops short of immediately banning the practice. Friedrich Ostendorff, a spokesman for the German Green party, said he was “surprised and disappointed” by the court’s decision.
The mass-killing of male chicks is common practice in food production around the world. For the billions of hens used in egg and poultry farming every year, a similar number of male chicks are killed shortly after birth. Male chicks are viewed in the industry as commercially useless, because they grow more slowly than hens so are deemed unsuitable for meat production’. SOURCE…
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