February 2, 2018

The fact that chickens have the capacity to suffer and feel is given little consideration in the conventional poultry meat and egg industry. For example, it is permitted to keep up to 27,000 broilers in the same facility until the 28th fattening day. From the 43rd fattening day onwards, a maximum of 18,000 animals are permitted. It is hardly possible to meet the needs of the individual animal in such intensive farming systems, even though chickens are equally covered by the animal welfare legislation as are all other vertebrates. They are protected in their well-being and dignity just as much as dogs, cats and cattle. The law requires that chickens are respected in their intrinsic value for their own sake and are not to be treated as a mere commodity.

Tier im Fokus handed over the video material to TIR for the latter to assess the animal welfare violations from a legal perspective. Excerpts from the recordings were also shown last Tuesday, January 30, 2018, in the SRF show "10vor10". In all five of the farms in question, seriously injured animals can be seen that have been overlooked due to the excessive number of animals kept there and were therefore subject to significant suffering. Every animal owner has a special statutory duty of care. They are obliged to check on the condition of their animals as often as necessary and immediately place, care for, treat or painlessly kill sick or injured animals according to the state they are in.

In TIR's view, the images show clear violations of animal welfare law. The fact that such cases are considered a normal part of poultry meat production does not change anything in terms of punishability, on the contrary: there is an urgent need to reconsider poultry farming in order to avoid the constant disregard for the welfare and dignity of the animals. Particular focus should thereby be placed on animal breeding. Breeding with the sole purpose of achieving a high growth rate is accompanied by severe physical impairments for the animals and therefore qualifies as torture breeding.

It is also completely incomprehensible why respective farms are granted subsidies from the federal government for "particularly animal-friendly housing (BTS)". TIR already described this deplorable situation in its Aanalysis of the Swiss animal welfare-related penal practice in the fall of 2017. Tier im Fokus launched a petition calling for a cancellation of the direct payments: https://www.hühner-schwindel.ch.