“Hello, I wanted to know if there was anything to it. I couldn’t find anything anywhere”
This is how the request begins from a user who cannot believe what he has seen. It's about the article: A secretly filmed video shows chicks dying .
Many people find such images disturbing and simply refuse to believe that “such a thing” really exists.
Can you gas chicks? Can you trim their beaks?
Fact check
The fact that factory farming is not funny no longer needs any detailed explanation at this point. Modern poultry farming is no exception, although work is constantly being done to improve conditions. The video shows real footage. There is no fake here.
- Kill day-old chicks
also shown ZDF WISO ZDF had informed the responsible supervisory authority, the Freising district, in connection with the gassing of female chicks. He replied:
“If the accusation is true, then this is a criminal offense.
We have therefore informed the public prosecutor’s office of the matter.”
It is therefore being determined whether the animal protection law has actually been broken here.
The topics of “killing day-old chicks” and “better keeping conditions for poultry” have been part of the media for several years. Between 2013 and 2015, the Ministry of Consumer Protection and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia initially submitted a legislative proposal to the Bundesrat to amend the Animal Protection Act in order to ban the killing of chicks for economic reasons. This was approved by the Federal Council on September 25, 2015 with a large majority and handed over to the Bundestag. On March 17, 2016 the application was rejected:
The North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Consumer Protection issued the decree banning the killing of day-old chicks in September 2013 with reference to the Animal Welfare Act (TierSchG) and set a transition period until January 1, 2015. On May 20, 2016, the Higher Administrative Court (OVG) in Münster overturned this decree in a landmark ruling.
The OVG decided that killing the male day-old chicks immediately after hatching did not violate the Animal Welfare Act. The Animal Protection Act allows the killing of animals if there is a reasonable reason for doing so. The court found that there was a reasonable reason because raising the male chicks involved a disproportionate amount of effort. The reasoning behind the judgment states: The killing of the chicks is “therefore part of the process of supplying the population with eggs and meat”.
Since an appeal against this judgment was not permitted, the districts of Gütersloh and Paderborn filed an appeal in August 2016 at the instigation of the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry for the Environment.
In January 2017 it was announced that the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig had approved the appeal. Consumer advice center
The killing of male chicks is therefore legal and may continue to be practiced. but how does it continue? a press release from the Federal Ministry of Economics (BMEL) from 2017, alternatives to killing male chicks are being developed.
This is what it says:
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture (BMEL) is promoting the further development of “in ovo sex determination” as a high priority as part of its “ A Question of Husbandry – New Ways for More Animal Welfare ” initiative.
The aim of the research project is to develop new methods and procedures that are suitable for identifying the sex of fertilized chicken eggs at an early stage in the egg. Eggs that develop into male chicks can then be sorted out. Hatching and subsequent killing of male chicks can thus be prevented from the outset...
... The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) aims to end the routine killing of these so-called day-old chicks. Instead, before the chicks hatch, it should be checked whether the egg would produce a female or male animal. If this distinction is successful, the laying hens can be hatched while the roosters do not hatch. These eggs could instead be used as animal feed, for example.
As soon as hatcheries have a practical process for sexing and sorting eggs, there will no longer be any legal justification for killing male chicks.
This topic is still current in the media .
- Beak trimming
Shortening the tip of the beak of chicks is also regulated in the Animal Welfare Act under “§ 6 (Amputation)”.
4 Regarding § 6 (Amputation)
4.1 Permission according to § 6 Para. 3 No.
1 4.1.1 The responsible authority can, upon request, grant permission to animal owners who carry out beak trimming or have it carried out. Livestock keepers are also hatcheries if beaks are trimmed before the animals are handed over to the future keeper.4.1.2 According to the current state of scientific knowledge and established practical experience, beak trimming is indispensable when known factors that are (partly) causal for feather pecking and cannibalism have been excluded as far as possible, but there is still a risk of this behavior occurring the associated pain, suffering and damage caused to each other by animals cannot be counteracted in any other way. The greatest possible exclusion of the known (contributory) causal factors is to be assumed, provided that the corresponding animal husbandry is based on the technically recognized requirements; The relevant recommendations from the federal and state governments can serve as guidance for this. The relevant recommendations of the Council of Europe must be observed. If animals are intended to be kept as laying hens in unequipped cages, beak trimming is prohibited.
4.1.3 The applicant must provide a credible demonstration of the indispensability of the intervention to the responsible authority by means of a veterinary certificate which shows which measures the future animal owner uses to largely exclude the known causes of feather pecking and cannibalism in animal husbandry. Deviating from this, the responsible authority may request a written declaration from the future animal owner stating that the animals are kept in accordance with the requirements recognized by them and that beak trimming is still essential. (D 2.1) 5 32. Add. If the applicant is not the future animal keeper, but rather the hatchery, for example, the permit must be granted on the condition that the applicant ensures that the above-mentioned requirements are met in the manner described above and informs the authority Demand that the relevant documents from the future animal owner be presented and that they are plausible. The application must also contain information about the intended method of beak trimming and the knowledge and skills of the people carrying out the beak trimming.
4.1.4 The permit is limited to a maximum of 5 years.
4.1.5 The approval notice must include provisions regarding the type, scope and timing of the interventions, in particular regarding permissible methods and the maximum age of the animals on which interventions may be carried out.
LMU
So the beaks were shortened to prevent feather pecking and cannibalism among the chickens. This was a behavioral disorder that depends on many factors. Nevertheless, this is an amputation of an animal. However, in 2015, Germany was able to make a big leap forward to spare the hens this procedure:
The German poultry industry supports the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) initiative “A Question of Husbandry – New Ways for Greater Animal Welfare”. On July 9, 2015, they sealed the phase-out of routine beak trimming for laying hens and fattening turkeys.
With the agreement, the poultry industry undertakes to stop shortening beaks from August 1, 2016 and to refrain from introducing pullets with shortened beaks from January 1, 2017.
The signatories of this agreement, which is groundbreaking for animal protection in livestock farming, are the Central Association of the German Poultry Industry, the Federal Association of German Eggs and the Association of German Turkey Producers eV BMEL
In the agreement to improve animal welfare you can find the following under point 1.3:
The poultry industry supports the initiative of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. It is prepared to pursue the ban on trimming the beaks of laying hens and turkeys as an industry goal, so that the fundamental ban on amputations anchored in the Animal Welfare Act is widely implemented in practice and the procedure is only carried out in justified individual cases.
continue under point 1.8:
During the transition period until beak trimming is stopped and in cases in which the indispensability of the procedure has been credibly demonstrated , it must be ensured that beak trimming is carried out in accordance with the latest scientific and technical standards and with the greatest possible reduction in pain and suffering for the animals . After the poultry industry has worked with scientific and technical experts for many years to improve technical solutions for shortening the tip of the beak, the infrared process is a technology that reduces pain and suffering more reliably than other processes and can be viewed as a suitable bridging technology .
Result:
The killing of male chicks is permitted because, according to the court, there is a “reasonable reason” (“no economic viability”), but alternatives to killing the males are being worked on, such as “in ovo sex determination”. However, gassing female chicks is prohibited and can result in criminal penalties.
Shortening beaks is permitted under certain guidelines during the transitional period until it is waived. However, a permit can also be issued in justified individual cases or if the indispensability of the intervention can be credibly demonstrated.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

