A new campaign has been launched to ban male chick culling in the UK, which LAWS is proud to support. Here is an overview of this shocking practice and the campaign, written for LAWS by Jenny Canham of the Vegetarian Society.
The UK is currently falling behind other European countries and risking its reputation as a global leader in animal welfare by continuing to allow the cruel, unnecessary and extremely wasteful practice of routine male chick culling in the UK.
The routine culling of baby male chicks is commonplace in the UK egg industry. It involves the killing of around 45 million chicks every year. If chicks are born male, deemed useless to the industry, they are killed at around just one day old, usually by gassing.
Shockingly, almost every egg for sale in the UK is produced using this practice, which largely takes place in two major hatcheries in England.
Over recent years, Europe has made massive strides to outlaw routine male chick culling. Austria, France, Germany, and Italy have passed legislation prohibiting the practice, and the Dutch Parliament further adopted a resolution calling for a ban.
However, the UK is falling behind.
In July 2023, the UK Animal Welfare Committee, the official advisory body of the UK Government, released it’s ‘Opinion on alternatives to culling newly hatched chicks in the egg and poultry industries’.
The recommendations state, “Government should make the routine culling of newly hatched chicks and turkey poults, due to their sex, illegal as soon as reliable, accurate methods for sexing eggs prior to hatch are available to be implemented in GB hatcheries.” and “When this happens, the import of eggs and of female chicks and poults from production systems in which there is routine culling should be made illegal.”
Not only does this technology exist, but it is widely used in countries where male-chick culling is already banned, known as “in-ovo sexing”. In-ovo sexing determines the sex of a chick as early as day nine of incubation, sparing male chicks a brief life and pointless death shortly after birth.
The Vegetarian Society, a leading non-profit organisation creating positive changes for humans, animals and the planet for over 175 years, has now launched a new campaign calling on the government to finally ban male chick culling and mandate in-ovo sexing in the UK. ‘Ban Hatch & Dispatch’ calls for a commitment to ban the practice as soon as possible via amendments to The Welfare of Animals at the Time Of Killing (England) Regulations 2015, as well as similar regulations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Further, given how critical it is that UK animal protection laws are protected through trade, especially within the current climate, The Vegetarian Society is also working on partnering legislation to ban the importation of eggs into the UK that were derived from male chick culling having been carried out in other countries. This would further show the government’s commitment to animal welfare by protecting UK standards through bans on both production and importation.
The campaign has strong public and political support so far, with cross-party representatives speaking out in parliament and putting pressure on the government to address the issue.
To get involved, sign the petition and ask your representative to continue the momentum by speaking out about the crucial need to ban male chick culling as soon as possible, to reaffirm the UK’s position as a leader in animal welfare.
