After allegations of animal cruelty against Lidl suppliers: discounter reacts and demands review

Created: 10/28/2022, 13:05

A Lidl branch (icon image).

© IMAGO/Michael Gstettenbauer

Lidl has faced serious allegations in recent days.

Now the discounter is responding to the allegations against a supplier.

Berlin – Animal welfare organizations have published undercover footage from a Lidl supplier’s fattening stable.

They show how fattening chickens not only suffer from the conditions they are kept in, but also from the consequences of the extreme growth they breed.

The "Albert Schweitzer Foundation for our environment" calls on Lidl to take responsibility for the conditions at its suppliers and to tackle the biggest problems of chicken fattening, especially torturous breeding.

Lidl and animal cruelty: videos show torture at Lidl suppliers

The recordings were made during undercover investigations in the summer of 2022. It was filmed over several days in Lower Saxony, in a stable of a large Lidl supplier.

According to information from the animal rights activists, the chickens from the supplier are processed into products from the Lidl own brands "Metzgerfrisch" and "Grillmeister".

Footage shows broilers languishing in crowded pens and struggling to stand.

The animals are bred for enormous growth, especially the chest muscles are unnaturally large.

The bones and organs of the animals are overloaded with it.

Pain, deformation and organ failure can be the consequences, among other things.

Lidl and animal cruelty: "Initiative Tierwohl" allows torture breeding

All of this is part of the everyday life of broilers at Lidl - because the label used by Lidl of the "Initiative Animal Welfare" also allows the use of torture breeding.

Sick, dying, dead and decomposed animals can be seen in the recordings.

The employees apparently overlook dead animals in the huge, full stables, which then lie between their fellow animals until they decompose.

Such scandalous conditions are normal in conventional animal husbandry.

It should be taken into account that around five percent of the animals die before they are slaughtered.

You can get an insight into the video material at http://www.lidl-fleischskandal.de.

Lidl and animal cruelty: Lidl announces clarification

Now Lidl has promised a comprehensive investigation into the allegations against a chicken supplier.

Lidl spoke out clearly against animal cruelty, the company announced on Wednesday (October 26) in Bad Wimpfen (Heilbronn district).

The supplier, who also supplies other market participants, was asked for an opinion and an independent examination by external experts was arranged.

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In addition, Lidl made it clear to the

portal : “There is expressly no health risk for consumers.” Consumer protection, among other things, had previously expressed concerns: The bacteria, which are resistant to many antibiotics, could therefore “pose a serious health risk to humans will".

It is also true that the quality of meat products cannot generally be determined by the level at which they are kept.