German poultry wants a European ban on killing chicks quickly

The chairman of the German poultry industry believes that European rules against the killing of male chicks should be introduced as soon as possible. Chairman Ripke says German poultry is beginning to suffer from the chick-killing ban imposed in Germany early this year.

Germany's new law protecting male chicks has already prevented millions of animals from being killed immediately after hatching, Friedrich-Otto Pike said in an interview with German newspapers. “The new law will save about 40 million male chicks from death in Germany this year,” he said.

Since the ban was introduced in January, the German egg trade has been using modern technology to determine whether an egg becomes a hen or a rooster within nine days, Ripke reports. 

The president of the association called for uniform European rules. German law “allows too many circumstances of circumvention”. For example, male chicks can be exported across the border and killed there,” Ripke reports. Because in Poland, the Netherlands, Italy or France the killing of chicks is still allowed. 

German breeders would have competitive disadvantages in a European comparison. Killing male chicks is still legal in Switzerland, but only with gas. The shredding of male chicks has been banned there since early 2020. 

France and Germany called for a European ban on the killing of day-old roosters last summer. Together with Austria, Spain, Ireland, Luxembourg and Portugal, the agriculture ministers of these countries have already submitted a proposal to this effect in Brussels. Little has been done about this so far. The Netherlands believes that research should first be carried out into new technology for determining the sex of eggs.