Last night Eyes on Animals gave a short instruction presentation on the EonA upright method of catching laying hens to the commercial catchers hired by Kipster. At Kipster the hens are no longer caught in the conventional way (3-6 at a time held upside down by a leg, per hand) but rather 1-2 at a time and kept upright all the time, supported by under their body.
The catchers came from a Dutch catching company and Erboga from Germany. Eyes on Animals team helped catch the birds and supervise that it goes as humanely as possible ujtil the very end This remains always a challenge with such a large number of birds all together, but the vast majority of the catchers did at least their best.
A few catchers lost patience, one in particular who screamed a lot and was rough with the birds. We spoke to the manager of the Dutch catching crew about this and he said he will set it right. Some of the others were really respectful and the ones from Germany, who had never caught this way, were very polite and learned fast. All in all it was much better than when we observe the conventional method. We would really like to commend Kipster and the catchers for being open minded, innovative and daring to do things differently !
There were also 3 poultry scientists from ILVO in Belgium who came to observe, and also helped out. They are studying the difference between the conventional and EonA upright method.
