Gaia launches touring campaign against killing of live chicks by egg production industry
Animal rights organisation Gaia has begun a summer tour to gather support for a ban on the gassing and crushing of live male chicks by the egg production industry.
The campaign kicked off on Tuesday in Brussels and will visit 11 other cities, including Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi, Leuven, Bruges and Liège.
Every day, 65,000 newborn male chicks are gassed or thrown alive into a grinder because they have no value to the industry, the organisation estimates, amounting to almost 24 million a year. According to a Gaia survey, two-thirds consumers in Belgium are unaware of this practice.
Audio petition
In Flanders and Brussels, crushing and gassing are still legal. In Wallonia, crushing has been banned but gassing is permitted. Most of Belgium’s producers are in Flanders.
Gaia is calling on people to support its call to ban the killing of live chicks and oblige producers to use in-ovo selection, a technique that allows them to check the sex before the chick is born and hatched. The organisation wants supermarkets to only buy eggs from suppliers that use this technique.
It has launched an “audio petition”, inviting people to shout their opposition to the practices.
“Supermarkets continue to sell eggs from hens whose chicks are cruelly gassed or crushed alive immediately after birth,” said GAIA director Ann De Greef. “It is high time the chains took their responsibility and complied with the wish of the vast majority of Belgian consumers.”
Animal rights organisation Gaia launches its campaign against the culling of male chicks in Brussels, 23 July 2024 © BELGA PHOTO TIMON RAMBOER
Related news
