Poultry: Animal Welfare

(asked on 4th June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what system is in place to count the number of chicks macerated in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Northern Ireland and (d) Scotland.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 15th June 2021

All four of the main laying hen hatcheries in the UK use argon and CO2 gas mixtures as a permitted method of killing male day-old chicks, rather than maceration.

Maceration, or immediate crushing of the entire animal, is a lawful method of killing chicks up to 72 hours old and egg embryos (under Annex I of Regulation 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing). The method must provide for instantaneous maceration and immediate death of the animals and, as a result, they are caused no avoidable pain, distress or suffering when killed.

It is not within the Food Standards Agency’s remit to inspect laying hen hatcheries.

There is no statutory requirement to keep records of chicks killed by maceration

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