Source:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326168/Secret-footage-shows-millions-British-chicks-killed-year.html
EXCLUSIVE By Sean Poulter
Last updated at 6:58 AM on 4th November 2010
This is the reality for millions of chicks in
Britain every year.
Fluffy yellow youngsters travel
on conveyor belts at hatcheries dotted across the country – half to
their death, the other half to egg farms.
The males are immediately
discarded – and either gassed or thrown into macerating machines,
which kill instantly.
Undercover filming by the
campaigning welfare group Viva has captured the reality of the
early days of factory farm chickens.
Once hatched, the chicks are
placed onto a conveyor belt system to be sexed and
sorted.
Bleak existence: Once hatched
the chicks are placed onto a conveyor belt system to be sexed and
sorted
Immediately killed: These male
chicks have been gassed and are falling out of the
machine
While the females will survive
this initial process, their heads are placed into machines that
will automatically clip away the ends of their beaks and inoculate
them against disease.
In some hatcheries the tips of
the beaks are removed using a hot wire.
This is done to ensure the
birds do not peck and injure each other out of the frustration of
spending their lives in cramped wire battery cages.
The same machine will inoculate them against
various diseases common in the cage systems used on farms in
Britain and around the world.
Even chicks going into other
systems, such as free range, will have the end of their beaks cut
off.
There was nothing illegal in
the activities witnessed by Viva’s undercover team, however the
images demonstrate the reality behind the idyllic farmyard pictures
plastered over supermarket egg boxes.
Viva is a pro-vegetarian organisation and
would prefer people to turn their back on eating eggs. The filming
took place at two hatcheries in this country in
August.
At one, the male chicks are
gassed in a machine before the bodies are then packaged to be fed
to reptiles.
Life and death: This woman is
sorting males from females to catch any that were missed in the
gassing room and is pictured flinging a male chick from the
conveyor belt into a crate
Coming up for air: This little
chick’s head was poking out of a crate
At the second the male chicks
are picked up in handfuls and dropped alive into a mincing machine
in a process known as IMD – Instantaneous Mechanical
Destruction.
Even chicks going into other
systems, such as free range, will have the end of their beaks cut
off.
The official line of the UK egg producing
industry is that this destruction method is
uncommon.
However, the recent footage
demonstrates IMD is routinely used by at least one major
hatchery.
Both of these slaughter methods are approved
by Government’s food and farming department, Defra, and the Humane
Slaughter Association.
Viva campaigns manager, Justin
Kerswell, said: ‘It is the hidden horror that the egg industry does
not want you to see.
Star support: Actor Martin Shaw – aka Judge John
Deed – backs Viva
‘For the first time ever in the
UK, the egg industry’s number one secret has been exposed: what
happens to male chicks.
‘In egg production male chicks
are surplus to requirements, which means that they are sorted from
the females in vast warehouses and then killed in their thousands
at just a day or two old.
‘Identical to the chicks you see on Easter
greeting cards, these uncomprehending young birds are either sent
on a conveyor belt to be gassed or thrown alive into electric
mincers.
‘Our undercover investigator
has revealed the awful truth that underpins the British egg
industry.’
He said: ‘The female chicks don’t get it much
better. Roughly sorted from the males, they too are transported on
a seemingly never ending conveyor belt.
‘However, they are vaccinated
and have the tip of their beaks cut off, which is potentially
painful to these young animals.’
Mr Kerswell said the conveyor
belt system in the egg hatcheries is not unique to the chicks that
go into battery cages.
The same system is used to sort those which
move to barn, free range or even most organic egg
farms.
‘It is an unimaginable waste of
life – and all just to bring an egg to your morning table,’ he
said.
The actor Martin Shaw, who
starred as Judge John Deed is a vegetarian and supporter of Viva.
He described the footage as ‘shocking’.
He said: ‘This exposes the mass
murder and mutilation of thousands of baby chicks – at the hands of
the British egg industry.
Common abroad: Masceration is
more widespread in other countries (file photo)
‘Supporting this cruel industry
sees the continuation of the slaughter of male baby birds for no
reason, other than their sex.’
The British Egg Information
Service defended industry practises.
Despite the evidence of the
Viva footage, the organisation claimed it was unusual to put live
chicks into mascerators in this country – although not
illegal.
It said: ‘In the egg industry,
on hatching, chicks are immediately segregated into the male and
female sexes by feather colour identification. Obviously, only
females lay eggs.
‘In the past the male chicks
were used for poultry meat but the broiler meat industry has now
developed specific strains of chicken which grow quickly. The male
chicks from egg-laying breeds are not suitable.
‘It is therefore necessary to
dispose of the male chicks using a method approved by DEFRA and
monitored by the Government’s Animal Health Agency.
‘Disposal is normally carried
out by exposure to carbon dioxide or a mixture of carbon dioxide
and argon, which is quick and painless, following a Code of
Practice approved by the Humane Slaughter Association.
‘The male chicks then provide a
valuable source of food for other species such as reptiles and
birds of prey.’
It said hatcheries are required
to have mascerators by law, but said these are mainly used to
dispose of unhatched eggs.
‘It is not in the industry’s
commercial interest to throw chicks alive into mascerators,
although this is not illegal,’ it said.
‘Masceration of live chicks is
common in other countries including the USA.’
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