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Animal husbandry and Human-animal relationships

Vrai, mais… : 20 millions de canetons femelles sont gazés ou broyés par an

By January 6th 2022January 25th, 2022No Comments

Document type : Article published on the DecodAgri website

Author : Renaud d'Hardivilliers

Preview: The new year celebrations have reawoken a controversy in the public debate on foie gras. On social networks, users and animal protection associations are becoming alarmed over what happens to the female ducklings that are not used in the production of foie gras. Only male ducks are subjected to the force-feeding process. This article asks why this is the case, whether female ducklings are really gassed or crushed, and whether the figure of 20 million young females gassed or crushed per year, quoted by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, is correct.


Why are females not included in production?
According to the charter of the Comité interprofessionnel des palmipèdes à foie gras (Cifog), this French delicacy cannot be produced from female ducks. When DecodAgri interviewed Marie-Pierre Pé, the current President of Cifog, she gave us two reasons:
- The liver of females is less suitable for foie gras production because it has a denser network of veins;
- Females are more difficult to farm.


What happens to the female ducklings?
The Brigitte Bardot Foundation has claimed on Twitter that some of the female ducklings are sold abroad, but that the rest are not made use of. And, in an email exchange with DecodAgri, it states that this "unused surplus" is made up  20 million animals. The Foundation claims that 20 million female ducklings are therefore either crushed or gassed each year in France. When asked to provide the source of this figure it did not do so.  Other figures are being shared on social networks, including the suggestion that up to 50 million female ducklings are crushed.
For her part, Marie-Pierre Pé of the Cifog offers a qualification. Although the practice does occur, the figure is iother small companion animalscurate: "In the last twenty years, hatcheries have developed an export market for young female ducks to Italy, Germany, Cyprus and North Africa". And the proportion "used in this way" represents in principle "up to 90% of these animals". The remaining 10%, i.e. 2 million ducklings, are, on the other hand, "culled in accordance with the legal requirements set out in the regulations on the culling of hatchery surpluses (approved materials)".
But this percentage is only achieved where the health conditions are suitable for export. During an avian flu epidemic, for example, the transport of live poultry is prohibited. In 2021, therefore, the export figure for young female ducks not used by the foie gras industry was not 90%, but only 40%. In this instance, Cifog tells us, this represents approximately 11 million gassed or crushed animals. And not 20 million.
When there is no health crisis, but still depending on market export capacity, the proportion of young female ducks exported is between 30% and 90%. Consequently, the number of ducklings that are either crushed or gassed is, in principle, between 2 million and 12.5 million.

For information: By 2024, on a date as yet unspecified, it will no longer be permitted for female ducklings to be crushed or gassed at birth, with the roll out of technology that allows the sexing of eggs at eight days after incubation. In other words, hatcheries will be able to determine in advance whether an egg will produce a male or a female.

From the DecodAgri website