Day old chicks

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Day old chicks

Day-old chicks are chicks in poultry breeding or production that are not older than one day.

Since chicks do not have to look for food on their own immediately (due to the nutritious yolk sac), they are able to survive for some time, which is why they are traded, transported, separated, examined and vaccinated during this time. The following article deals mainly with the selection of unwanted chicks (see also Merzvieh ).

Day-old male chicks are separated from animals bred for laying due to the lack of profitability of the fattening and sacrificed. Many day-old female chicks are also killed.

Gender determination and care

Day-old female chick

As a rule, sexing of chicks is already carried out on the first day of life. This can be done by inspecting the genitals, but in the case of commercial breeding lines, it is easier through deliberately bred phenotypic gender differences (e.g. different feather lengths on the wings). The male chicks are called "brother cocks" or " brother chicks ".

Chicks that hatch naturally are immediately looked after by the mother hen , but have to find food themselves. In the case of artificial brood, the immediate availability of water and food from hatching is recommended. Since chicks can survive for about 72 hours without food due to their body reserves, food and water are often only made available at a later point in time in commercial rearing.

The vaccination against Marek's disease is ideally carried out on the first day of life. Outside Europe, the female chicks are often given an injection of growth hormones for fattening so that the animals reach their slaughter weight within 40 days. In the European Union, however , the use of hormones as substances that promote growth is prohibited.

Killing of day-old male chicks

reasons

In poultry production , the male chicks of the hybrid chicken are rejected for economic reasons. The female chicks from breeding lines for high laying performance are raised as laying hens . The male chicks do not lay eggs , and animals from these lines also put on less breast meat than animals that are optimized for broiler fattening . Raising them as broilers is therefore less profitable. Since January 1, 2022, it has been forbidden in Germany to kill chicks of domestic chickens of the Gallus gallus species (Section 4c of the Animal Welfare Act).

scope

In Germany, 45 million day-old chicks are shredded or gassed every year; that's over 126,000 animals every day. Around 3 million male chicks are killed in Switzerland every year, almost a quarter of them organic chicks . In 2014, 330 million day-old chicks were killed in the European Union. Worldwide there are around 2.5 billion chicks annually. That's almost 7 million day-old chicks every day.

Killing process

Day-old chicks, shredded

The male day-old chicks ( androzid ) are usually killed by asphyxiation or shredding . When suffocating, CO 2 is introduced into containers with a few hundred chicks. Loss of consciousness occurs within seconds and death occurs within a few minutes due to lack of oxygen in the blood. This process is medically characterized by the Bohr or Haldane effect .

In the European Union , the animals may only be killed after stunning, whereby the shredding through immediate, immediately killing dismemberment of the entire body is permitted and then required stunning method for chicks up to 72 hours old (three-day). The apparatus must be equipped with rapidly rotating, mechanically driven knives or polystyrene knobs and must have the capacity to kill a large number "immediately". When stunning with carbon dioxide, the concentration must be at least 40% CO 2 .

In Switzerland , killing by stacking chicks alive on top of one another is prohibited, which amounts to a practical ban on CO 2 asphyxiation. However, most chicks are still gassed. In March 2019, the National Council voted to ban the shredding of live chicks. The Council of States voted in favor of the ban in September 2019. With the ban, a concern from a petition by the Swiss Vegan Society was taken up.

In mass production in the United States, according to a video by the animal rights organization Animal Equality, the killing also involves cutting off the head.

Ways of avoidance

Dual purpose races

Animal rights activists are calling for a return to dual-purpose chickens , in which female animals can be raised as laying hens and male chicks can be fattened for later meat use. However, laying performance and meat set correlate negatively with each other, which is why such breeds would be less effective.

Sex determination in the egg

Killing can be avoided if sex is determined in the hen's egg and male chicks are not hatched (ovo sex determination). The Seleggt company has developed a practical process. However, the sex determination can only be carried out with a high hit rate on the eighth day, when the development of the embryo is already relatively far. The eggs are currently sold by around 380 Rewe and Penny branches .

Methods that have been studied, in which the hatched egg has to be opened, are a scattered light method to examine the blood vessels of the embryo and a hormone method which examines extracted urine. One method that leaves the egg intact is based on the image evaluation of a magnetic resonance tomography of the already hatched egg. A sorting method up to the seventh day of development of the embryo is considered desirable, although it has not yet been finally clarified when the embryo starts to feel pain. With the help of light disk microscopy , the nerve tract of a seven-day chicken embryo could be shown graphically. The organic farming associations Bioland and Demeter reject sex determination in the egg with subsequent embryo killing. Biokreis and Naturland also reject in-ovo selection. For Bio Suisse, sex determination in the egg is a good solution.

In Germany, from January 1, 2024 after the sixth day of incubation, it is forbidden to cause the death of the chicken embryo during or after the use of a sex determination procedure in a chicken egg by interfering with a chicken egg or by interrupting the incubation process (Section 4c (3) of the Animal Welfare Act). .

Brother cock rearing

Germany

  • The "Bruderhahn Initiative" charges a surcharge of four cents per egg in order to finance the longer fattening period of at least 16 weeks compared to broilers.
  • Under the brand Alnatura and in the stores of the Basic-AG only eggs from the brother chick initiative are offered.
  • In addition to various other organic initiatives with its own label, Rewe and its discounter Penny have been the first in the conventional area to offer eggs from the hybrid chicken "Lohmann Sandy" since February 2017 , with the roosters being raised and fattened until they are ready for slaughter.
  • Also Aldi , Edeka and Real offer eggs, where the brother roosters are raised.

Austria

  • In 2016, the organic sector in Austria decided not to kill any more male chicks. To support the unprofitable fattening of the roosters, consumers pay a few cents more for organic eggs.

Switzerland

  • Since January 1, 2016, for the number of Bio-Suisse eggs that are produced under the label "henne & hahn", the corresponding male chicks have not been killed after hatching. The eggs have also been available from Aldi since February 2018 and from Lidl since the end of May 2021 .
  • In July 2017, Demeter Switzerland decided to only market eggs from the “Hahn im Glück” project from 2019 onwards. At Migros , Demeter eggs will be available throughout Switzerland from 2021.

Recycling and disposal

Some day-old chicks that have been killed are used as animal feed for birds of prey and reptiles and are offered frozen by wholesalers. According to a report by the Spiegel in 2011, however, some dead animals from the hatcheries are disposed of in the household waste, which would also contradict the premise of the Animal Welfare Act of killing without cause . In this regard, it was criticized that animal carcasses had to be disposed of in an animal body disposal facility. The Hessian Ministry of the Environment announced in 2014 that in Hesse “all male chicks are no longer shredded and disposed of, but killed with gas and used entirely as animal feed.” For example, they should also be sent to animal parks or to keepers of birds of prey and snakes. Representatives of the so-called BARFing also recommend feeding day-old chicks to young dogs and cats. In Switzerland, day-old chicks killed for commercial reasons are classified as Category 3 animal by-products . The corresponding category is used, for example, as animal feed or in biogas and composting plants .

controversy

This article or paragraph describes the situation in Germany . Help me to describe the situation in other countries.

Debate and ban in Germany

Current legal status of day-old chick killing in the poultry industry by country.
  • Prohibition of all chick killing (Germany and France January 1, 2022)
  • Chick shredding prohibited, chick gassing legal (Switzerland)
  • Planned ban on all chick killing by 2022 (Spain)
  • Planned ban on chick shredders (none)
  • Chick killing legal, no planned ban
  • No data

    • On May 20, 2021, the Bundestag passed a legal ban on chick shredding / gassing (Section 4 c of the Animal Welfare Act , coming into force on January 1, 2022) after the Federal Administrative Court ruled in June 2019 that the killing of male chicks was only permitted on a temporary basis (see below).

    Various legal comments come to the conclusion that mass killing directly after hatching is difficult to reconcile with animal welfare law for purely economic reasons .

    Until 2021, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse were the only German federal states in which the killing of male day-old chicks was prohibited by a decree by the consumer protection ministry as a violation of animal welfare. In North Rhine-Westphalia, however, the relevant decree was declared ineffective by the Minden Administrative Court in January 2015 (Minden Administrative Court, judgments of January 30, 2015, Az. 2 K 80/14 and 2 K 83/14). NRW had given the hatcheries a transition period until the beginning of 2015, which the court had assessed as inappropriately short.

    In 2013, PETA filed a criminal complaint against Brinkschulte, Senden , Germany. The District Court Münster has rejected an accusation the prosecutor's office on March 9, 2016; the company did not commit a crime. Another criminal complaint is directed against Lohmann in Cuxhaven .

    In September 2013, the Consumer Protection Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia banned the killing of day-old chicks in accordance with the Animal Welfare Act (TierSchG) after the Münster public prosecutor's office ruled that the killing of male chicks was illegal.

    In 2015, North Rhine-Westphalia submitted a draft law to the Federal Council to clarify the Animal Welfare Act against the mass killing of male chicks . In September 2015, the regional chamber passed a corresponding draft law, which stipulated a deadline of mid-2017 for the termination. The Bundestag rejected the application in March 2016.

    The Higher Administrative Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia ruled on May 20, 2016 that killing male day-old chicks from laying breeds in hatcheries does not violate the Animal Welfare Act. The Animal Welfare Act allows animals to be killed if there is a reasonable reason for this within the meaning of the law. There is such a reason for the killing of male chicks, which is prohibited by the districts. In January 2017, the Federal Administrative Court allowed an appeal against this judgment.

    On June 13, 2019, the Federal Administrative Court declared the practice permissible for a transitional period. Although the economic interests of hatcheries alone are not a reasonable reason, until the introduction of procedures that allow sex determination in the hen's egg, it remains permissible. The judgment caused criticism from animal welfare organizations, politicians and the Central Association of the German Poultry Industry .

    The first broad discussions about the correctness of chick killing date from the first decade of the 21st century.

    In 2009 the then Bioland chairman Thomas Dorsch took the view that in a few years no male chicks would have to be killed for organically produced eggs.

    Lower Saxony had intended to abolish the mass killing of male chicks at the end of 2017.

    Organic industry solution in Austria

    In Austria male chicks are killed for conventional agriculture as in other countries. The organic industry has agreed to fatten male chicks. A hybrid line of laying hens is also used, the brothers of which put on little meat and have a comparatively poor feed conversion rate. The costs for the fattening of the so-called "brother cocks" cover the organic eggs, which cost a few cents more.

    Web links

    Commons : Day-old chicks  - collection of images, videos and audio files

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ Duden : Day-old chicks
    2. ↑ Animal welfare violations in hatcheries? ( Memento from April 10, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) In: ZDF WISO , April 9, 2018, accessed on April 9, 2018.
    3. ^ NS Joseph and ET Moran: Effect of Flock Age and Postemergent Holding in the Hatcher on Broiler Live Performance and Further - Processing Yield. In: The Journal of Applied Poultry Research. 14.3 (2005), p. 512.
    4. ↑ a b Male chicks are sorted out and killed so brutally. Focus, February 27, 2016
    5. ↑ Directive 96/22 / EC of the Council of April 29, 1996 on the prohibition of the use of certain substances with hormonal or thyrostatic effects and of β-agonists in livestock production and the repeal of Directives 81/602 / EEC, 88/146 / EEC and 88/299 / EEC in the consolidated version of December 18, 2008 , accessed on May 20, 2016
    6. ↑ Directive 2003/74 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of September 22, 2003 amending Directive 96/22 / EC of the Council on the prohibition of the use of certain substances with a hormonal or thyrostatic effect and of β-agonists in animals Generation , accessed May 20, 2016
    7. ↑ Directive 2008/97 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of November 19, 2008 amending Directive 96/22 / EC of the Council on the prohibition of the use of certain substances with a hormonal or thyrostatic effect and beta-agonists in livestock production , accessed May 20, 2016
    8. ↑ Agrarmarkt Austria: Where do our laying hens come from?
    9. ↑ a b State Animal Welfare Officer Hessen: Millions of male day-old chicks killed ( Memento from December 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
    10. ↑ Against chick shredding. “Nobody wants to kill animals on the first day”. Tagesspiegel, March 31, 2015.
    11. ↑ Markus Balser: Chick shredding - fluffy, sweet, dead. In: sueddeutsche.de . March 29, 2018. Retrieved April 9, 2019 .
    12. ↑ a b c d Dani Müller: Egg production - senseless chick killing: Is it finally over? In: srf.ch . April 16, 2019, accessed April 16, 2019 .
    13. ↑ Bioaktuell magazine. In: bioaktuell.ch. March 2021, accessed March 17, 2021 .
    14. ↑ Jörg Göbel, Christian Rohde Vergast fürs Breakfast Egg - The One-Day Chicks Millions Death ( Memento from May 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF). ZDF, April 22, 2014.
    15. ↑ Killing of male chicks. ( Memento of February 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Science and Information Center for Sustainable Poultry Management (WING), University of Vechta.
    16. ↑ Article 4 Council Regulation (EU) No. 1099/2009 of September 24, 2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing, with Annex I, Chapter I, Table 1, Item 4 and Chapter II, No. 2
    17. ^ Animal Welfare Law - Switzerland ( memento of October 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (with commentary) by the Foundation for Animals in Law
    18. ↑ Matthias Bärlocher: Against shredded chicks: These are the approaches of the farmers. In: nau.ch . March 22, 2019, accessed April 11, 2019 .
    19. ↑ Shredding live chicks is prohibited. In: bernerzeitung.ch . September 19, 2019. Retrieved September 19, 2019 .
    20. ↑ Klaus Hart: Economy: Male chicks are suffocated, gassed and shredded in Germany, Der Tagesspiegel of August 18, 1999.
    21. ↑ a b https://www.tum.de/die-tum/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/detail/article/34775/ Interview with B. Schusser, A. Haase: Breakthrough in the search for an alternative to chick killing , press release from the Technical University of Munich about Method for sexing in hen's eggs
    22. ↑ https://www.swr.de/marktcheck/besserer-tierschutz-fuers-gefluegel-schon-bald-alternativen-zum-kueken-toeten/-/id=100834/did=21062936/nid=100834/iozunn/index .html Stefanie Peyk, Lutz Heyser: Alternatives to Killing Chicks Soon , SWR online article from Jan. 29, 2018, accessed on Oct. 19, 2018.
    23. ↑ Robert Gast: Microscopy: nerve tracts of a chicken embryo. In: Spektrum.de . September 25, 2019. Retrieved September 25, 2019 .
    24. ↑ Alfons Deter: Bioland and Demeter reject sex determination in eggs. In: topagrar.com . April 12, 2020, accessed April 12, 2020 .
    25. ↑ Foodwatch is suing Aldi for a campaign to kill chicks. In: biohandel.de. December 2, 2020, accessed December 3, 2020 .
    26. ↑ Martina Schnyder: The dilemma of organic egg production - male chicks also have to die for organic eggs. Swiss Radio and Television (SRF), January 22, 2021, accessed on April 12, 2021 .
    27. ↑ Killing of chicks. Brothers, to the sun, to the saucepan. taz from November 20, 2013.
    28. ↑ Alnatura eggs. In: alnatura.de. Retrieved December 17, 2018 .
    29. ↑ Egg sales: Penny and Rewe are taking a stand against the killing of chicks. www. noz .de, January 27, 2017
    30. ↑ Bruderhahn vs. chick shredding. In: daserste.de . Retrieved December 17, 2018 .
    31. ↑ "henne & hahn": Brother chick program for more animal welfare from now on at ALDI SUISSE In: aldi-suisse.ch , January 31, 2018, accessed on March 29, 2018.
    32. ↑ Lidl takes eggs from "Henne & Hahn" onto the shelf. In: schweizerbauer.ch . May 31, 2021, accessed May 31, 2021 .
    33. ↑ As of 2019, Demeter Switzerland will only offer "Hahn im Glück". In: demeter.ch , July 4, 2017, accessed on March 29, 2018.
    34. ↑ Migros takes action against the killing of chicks In: migros.ch , November 18, 2020, accessed on November 18, 2020.
    35. ^ A life that is far too short , Stuttgarter Zeitung, December 27, 2015.
    36. ↑ In the chord for ready for battle , Der Spiegel of February 14, 2011.
    37. ↑ Twelve million chicks killed in Hessen ( Memento from May 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), hessenschau.de from February 24, 2016.
    38. ↑ Susanne Reinerth: Natural Dog Food: Raw Feeding for Dogs - A Practical Guide. S. 55 (2005) online in Google Books
    39. ↑ Art. 7 Category 3 animal by-products. In: SR 916.441.22 Ordinance of 25 May 2011 on animal by-products (VTNP). June 1, 2018, accessed January 5, 2020 .
    40. ↑ Art. 24 Disposal of animal by-products of category 3. In: SR 916.441.22 Ordinance of 25 May 2011 on animal by-products (VTNP). June 1, 2018, accessed January 5, 2020 .
    41. ↑ Bundestag: Bundestag prohibits the killing of chicken chicks
    42. ↑ Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Agriculture, Nature and Consumer Protection North Rhine-Westphalia, Ministry forbids the massive killing of day-old male chicks of laying hen breeds, September 26, 2013
    43. ↑ Animal protection: Hesse prohibits the killing of chicks. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. Online pages from September 4, 2014, accessed September 5, 2014.
    44. ↑ Minden Administrative Court, judgment of 30 January 2015 - 2 K 80/14 and 2 K 83/14: The authorities cannot prohibit the killing of day-old male chicks due to the lack of a legal basis. Animal Welfare Act does not provide a sufficient authorization basis for an official ban on killing with regard to so-called day-old chicks, free-urteile.de, February 6, 2015.
    45. ↑ Administrative Court of Minden: Animal Welfare Act does not provide a sufficient basis for an official ban on killing with regard to so-called day-old chicks. (No longer available online.) Justice portal North Rhine-Westphalia, February 6, 2015, archived from the original on May 21, 2016 ; accessed on May 21, 2016 .
    46. ↑ Federation against abuse of animals e. V .: Day-old chicks. The killing of day-old male chicks from laying lines from July 2015, accessed February 15, 2016.
    47. ↑ Day-old chicks may be killed , Legal Tribune Online , accessed March 10, 2016.
    48. ↑ Secret documents lead to criminal investigation against the world's largest poultry producer. Press release PETA, February 2016.
    49. ↑ Animal welfare: Public prosecutor's office takes action against the killing of chicks. Spiegel, February 13, 2016.
    50. ↑ Public prosecutors active: Is that the end of chick extermination? WAZ , February 13, 2016.
    51. ^ First charges against hatcheries because they kill chicks en masse. Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 13, 2016.
    52. ↑ End the practice of killing male day-old chicks. Press release of the SPD parliamentary group, February 15, 2016.
    53. ↑ Press release of September 26, 2013 from the press archive of the Ministry for the Environment, Agriculture, Nature and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia , accessed on June 10, 2018.
    54. ^ Draft of a law amending the Animal Welfare Act. Printed matter 18/6663, November 11, 2015
    55. ↑ Bill: Federal Council wants to ban the mass killing of male chicks. Spiegel, September 25, 2015.
    56. ↑ Federal Council wants to ban the killing of day-old chicks. In: Zeit Online. September 25, 2015. Accessed May 21, 2016.
    57. ↑ Bundestag resolution of May 17, 2016 , accessed on June 10, 2018.
    58. ↑ a b Report of the consumer center dated March 28, 2018 on verbüberszentrale.de: Killing of day-old chicks: These alternatives are available , accessed on June 10, 2018.
    59. ↑ Killing day-old chicks is compatible with the Animal Welfare Act. ( Memento from May 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Press release of the OVG NRW. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
    60. ↑ The killing of male chicks remains permitted on a transitional basis. Spiegel Online, June 13, 2019, accessed on the same day.
    61. ↑ Animal rights activists disappointed with the verdict on the killing of chicks , accessed on August 22, 2019 in Zeit.de.
    62. ↑ Dr. Katharina Reuter, Killing Chicks - What to Do? , Lecture at the conference "Dual-purpose chicken" - how can it work? on June 2, 2010 in Frankfurt am Main
    63. ↑ Denise Snieguole Wachter: Mass killing of male chicks. Chick shredding will be banned at the end of 2017. Why not immediately? In: Stern . February 23, 2016. Retrieved May 21, 2016 .
    64. ↑ Dirk Fisser: Meyer wants to end the exemption from killing chicks: Next year it should be over in Lower Saxony. In: New Osnabrück Newspaper . February 23, 2016. Retrieved May 21, 2016 .
    65. ↑ Ecological aspects: killing or fattening male chicks. In: LandSchetztLeben.at. Retrieved January 10, 2019 .