France and Germany to end culling of male chicks

Animal rights activists call for Britain to follow lead in banning the slaughter of millions of chickens

FRANCE and Germany are to ban the culling of male chickens, which animal rights activists hope will be also be adopted in Britain. At present, millions of the fowl worldwide are slaughtered each year on hatching because they do not produce eggs and are far less meaty than female birds.

Didier Guillaume, the agriculture minister in Paris, yesterday told BFM TV that the practice would stop “by the end of 2021”.

This would be in line with a policy Mr Guillaume has worked out with Julia Klöckner, his German counterpart.

“It’s time to end the shredding of chicks,” said Mr Guillaume. “France and Germany should be the European motor to advance on this issue.”

Producers argue that raising male chickens to adulthood is a waste of money and that macerating them using a high-speed grinder is the cheapest means of disposal.

Anaesthetics are not used in the culling, while asphyxiation by carbon dioxide or a simple snapping of necks are also popular methods of destruction.

British animal rights campaigners said they hoped such inhumane treatment would end in the UK, too.

Philip Lymbery, the head of Compassion in World Farming, described the killing of male chicks as “a terrible waste of life and something that technology now gives us the ability to bring to an end”.

He added: “I very much look to a post-brexit Britain to be a genuine leader in animal welfare, which should include outlawing the killing of male chicks of the egg-laying strain.”

The chicken industry began breeding separate meat- and egg-producing hybrids in the 1920s, meaning there was no need to keep males of the eggproducing hybrid. This led to the male offspring being killed as soon as possible after hatching and sexing.

There is currently no method of determining the sex of a chicken before it has hatched. Mr Guillaume said: “A technique should be found that works on a large scale.”

This would enable the destruction of eggs before the chickens are born.

German judges ruled in June last year that the slaughtering of 45million male chicks a year on birth could continue until it was possible to work out the sex of an embryo in the egg.

A 2009 European Union directive authorises shredding as long as it causes immediate death for chicks less than 72 hours old.

The proposed ban would be implemented through EU legislation, said Mr Guillaume.

He said he also wanted to see a ban on the castration of piglets without anaesthetic being outlawed by 2021.

France, Germany and Spain will sign up to a wellbeing labelling system for animals starting in 2021, Mr Guillaume added.