Skip to main content
Animal welfare initiatives

More animal welfare for chickens

By November 13, 2021December 7th, 2021No Comments

Document type : Article published in Fleischwirtschaft.de

Author: Sybille Roemer

 

 

 


 

Preview: GERMANY, Frankfurt. The balancing act between better husbandry conditions and economic efficiency.
Chickens are sociable birds. In the wild, they form groups of up to 20 hens and a few young cocks under the leadership of a rooster, spend their day mainly foraging together and look for a roost as high as possible at dusk - they prefer to fly up trees to do this.
In industrial animal husbandry facilities, chickens can hardly or not at all live out these and other needs. And since German consumers like chicken meat - the average per capita consumption was 15.5 kilograms in 2020 according to the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture - this type of farming is the norm: in 2020, according to the Federal Statistical Office, German farmers kept just under 160 million chickens, of which only around 8.2 million were organically farmed. This corresponds to a share of just 5.2 percent.


Unlike conventional farming, two metre long perches must also be provided for every 1000 birds, as well as two items for pecking opportunities. As far as perches and employment opportunities are concerned, the criteria of the broiler initiative are stricter than those of the EU organic label, which do not provide for either. However, with the EU organic label, a cold scratching area must be available and beak trimming is prohibited, as is genetic engineering in the feed.
In addition, farmers in the broiler chicken initiative commit to stunning the animals before slaughter: in a controlled atmosphere using inert gases, multi-stage CO₂ systems or effective electrical stunning without hanging the head, as hanging the head causes a lot of stress and often leads to bone fractures.

From Fleischwirtschaft website