After more than a year of ‘tough dialogue’ with the poultry industry, EonA finally succeeded: Rondeel – an egg producing company – has decided that they are going to develop a new way of catching based on the Swedish method we have been teaching (keeping birds upright instead of grabbing them by their legs and stuffing them into crates while upside down). Their decision comes after a project we initiated with Rondeel and the catching company Den Ouden Oirschot last January when, during our practical training, we caught and loaded 3500 Rondeel chickens in the more humane Swedish way. Before the birds were caught and loaded, we gave the chicken-catchers and the Rondeel manager the theoretical part of our animal-welfare course. During loading we were there to supervise and help out. Read more
For decades and decades all over the world, chickens raised commercially are caught by their legs and inverted, thus this change to upright catching by Rondeel is a major step forward that we achieved for the welfare of chickens. We will now do our best to convince other egg labels, such as Demeter, SKAL and the “Beter Leven” to follow this good example!