Eyes on Animals has been documenting how spent laying hens are caught and loaded in Europe.
This is just some of the footage and it is not even the worst. Spent hens raised on large farms are caught like this around the world and sadly even European officials and Member States have been tolerating it, despite it clearly being in violation of EU legislation. EU legislation states that no person shall cause animals to be transported in a way likely to cause injury or undue suffering to them and the means of transport, containers and their fittings shall be designed, constructed, maintained and operated so as to avoid injury and suffering.
It is clear from the footage that unnecessary suffering is occurring and the drawer system especially is not designed for spent hens but for broilers, causing all sorts of welfare problems when hens are loaded in them. We are trying to put an end to this rough and rushed handling of laying hens. Together with a few welfare-friendly egg producers and supermarkets, we are slowly changing the way hens are being caught, phasing out the conventional method of grabbing birds by their legs and stuffing them 5 at a time into crates by more slow and careful handling methods. Please, be a wise consumer and ask your supermarket how the hens producing the eggs that they sell are being caught. Suggest they get in touch with us, and tell them about our training courses for catchers. For more information you can contact info@eyesonanimals.com. Should you be an egg producer yourself, and want to change, please contact us and we will try to help you.
