Last night we gave a poultry- welfare workshop to Pots chicken catchers near Zwolle. Roughly 15 catchers were present to learn about the physiology of poultry, and what to pay attention to during catching and loading in order to reduce stress and suffering. Afterwards we were at a commercial farm with them where they had been hired to catch and load all the spent hens. The first 30 minutes we had them practice the more humane Swedish – method of catching birds. The Swedish method is max 2 birds at a time and only carried upright as opposed to the normal method of 3-4 birds per hand and held upside down by one leg. We are pressuring “humaner” egg companies to develop welfare criteria also for the manner in which birds are caught and loaded.
