EonA team was invited by an egg farmer to his laying-hen farm tonight in Drenthe to check how his 9000 spent-hens will be caught and loaded for transport to slaughter. He was open to our opinion and to exchange ideas on how to improve welfare and to test out the "EonA Dutch method" of catching the birds together with the catching crew. Normally all spent laying-hens are … [Read more...] about Inspection of chicken-catching at a farm in the Netherlands
chicken-catching
Practicing catching and loading hens in a gentle and upright manner
Spent laying hens are often caught and loaded in a brutal manner. This is not necessarily because chicken-catchers are mean people, but rather because the birds are worth very little at the end of their "productive life" and thus the slaughter industry and supermarkets put enormous pressure to keep costs low. Chicken-catchers are forced to catch and load birds at extreme … [Read more...] about Practicing catching and loading hens in a gentle and upright manner
Meeting with poultry organization Nepluvi to improve welfare during loading
Today we met with Nepluvi, the Dutch organization representing the interests of the poultry industry. We showed them footage taken during our numerous inspections of how rough spent- hens are handled during catching and loading. We also discussed an educative brochure we made on how the handling of birds can be improved on. Nepluvi is planning, together with chicken … [Read more...] about Meeting with poultry organization Nepluvi to improve welfare during loading
Inspection Dutch spent-hens loaded onto truck destined for slaughter in Poland
A team from EonA and AWF checked on the loading of spent-hens at a farm in south Netherlands. The birds were destined for a slaughterhouse in Poland. The hens had been housed in so-called “enriched” cages their whole life and were grabbed by their legs and suspended upside down by chicken-catchers. Once the chicken-catchers had three suspended birds in each hand they would … [Read more...] about Inspection Dutch spent-hens loaded onto truck destined for slaughter in Poland
Transport of chickens
Eyes on Animals is concentrating a lot of it´s efforts on chicken transport- in particular the way “spent” hens are transported. We are working towards these animals being better transported so that their suffering be limited. We regularly inspect chicken trucks and write reports about them to inform the authorities, the chicken industry and the media of our concerns with … [Read more...] about Transport of chickens