France will ban chick ‘shredding’ which sees young male birds killed in high speed grinders

France will ban chick ‘shredding’ which sees young male birds killed in high speed grinders because they are worth less than female chickens

  • Agriculture Minister in Paris said cruel culling would stop ‘by the end of 2021’ 
  • Didier Guillaume said on television: ‘It is time to end the shredding of chicks’  
  • Producers argue that raising male chickens to adulthood is a waste of money 

France and Germany are set to spearhead a ban on the notoriously cruel culling of male chickens.  

At present, tens of millions of the fowl are slaughtered on hatching in countries including Britain because they do not produce eggs, and are far less meaty than female birds.

Didier Guillaume, the Agriculture Minister in Paris, on Tuesday told BFM TV that the practices used to end their lives would stop ‘by the end of 2021’.

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

France and Germany are set to spearhead a ban on the notoriously cruel culling of male chickens because they are worth less than female chickens

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

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

‘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 have regularly called for the practices to be banned in the UK too.

The chicken industry began breeding separate meat and egg producing hybrids in the 1920s, meaning there was no need to keep males of the egg-producing hybrid.

This led to the male offspring of egg-laying chicken being killed as soon as possible after hatching and sexing.

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

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

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

This would enable producers to destroy the egg before the chickens are actually born.

German judges ruled in June last year that the slaughtering of some 45 million 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 EU directive authorises shredding as long as it causes the immediate death for chicks less than 72 hours old.

The proposed ban on culling would be implemented through EU legislation, and is all part of a drive for more humane food production, said Mr Guillaume.

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

‘There is the question of the well-being of the animals, but also that of the breeder,’ said Mr Guillaume.

‘I don’t know a breeder who wants their animals to be mistreated. They like their animals,’ he said.

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

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