Early 2021 Smits – source of energy, the producer of Eike eggs which are sold at Sligro, had informed us that they would like to have their spent laying hens caught upright. This involved a total of 40,000 chickens. These hens were to be caught and loaded mid-2022, supervised by a team from Eyes on Animals.
Unfortunately, Eike informed us that they are foregoing the upright method of catching. This means that the Eike hens, like all the other Smits chickens, will continue to be caught in the very stressful traditional way – multiple animals at a time, held upside down by one leg.
The reasons, according to Smits, are “the changing market” and “no 100% guarantee of upright catching.” We have indicated that EonA can always be present during the catching to ensure the upright method is used, but Smits never responded to this offer. We therefore suspect that these were mere excuses.
