A newly hatched chick
Photo: Michael Probst/ AP
In Germany, it was common practice to shred or gas male chicks after birth, only the females were raised to laying hens.
Killing has been banned since the beginning of the year - but what has happened to the animals since then is completely unclear, according to consumer protection officials.
"Almost nine million male chicks hatched in Germany in the first nine months of the year - and nobody knows or wants to know what happens to the animals," said Foodwatch executive director Chris Methmann.
"Even the Central Association of the Poultry Industry can only speculate about the whereabouts of the animals," Methmann explained.
"The responsible authorities don't know either, appropriate controls have apparently not taken place so far." Foodwatch found evidence that many companies transport male chicks abroad - where they may then be killed after all.
»Symptoms of a Broken Animal Husbandry System«
Since January, the male chicks in Germany can no longer be killed, but are either raised as so-called brother roosters or sorted out before hatching using sex determination processes.
The poultry industry itself pointed out the possibility that the brother cocks could be transported abroad to be killed and called for a uniform European rule.
France, among others, also wants to ban chick shredding.
Foodwatch also fundamentally criticizes the ban on killing chicks, because it does not change the “unbearable conditions in German chicken coops”.
The federal government "is just tinkering with the symptoms of a broken animal husbandry system that wants to produce as many eggs as cheaply as possible," Methmann explained.
Rather, what is needed is a “real system reorganization” away from “high-performance breeding that tortures animals”.
mrc/AFP