A livestock 200,000 laying hens health conditions “intolerable” – The World

Le Monde | 25.05.2016 00:01 • Updated 25/05/2016 at 10:31 | By Audrey Garric

cages succeed and pile of sight. Inside, hens jostle in tight spaces and gratings that overlook just piles of droppings. profilèrent maggots on the ground, crawling lice eggs and chickens, and corpses decaying lie among the other chickens, some plucked chickens.

in a new video released Wednesday, May 25, the L214 animal rights organization reveals breeding conditions “intolerable for animals and inadmissible from the health point of view “ that exist within the GAEC Perrat, exploitation of 200,000 laying hens located in the town of Chaleins (Ain). The association filed a complaint with the High Court (TGI) of Bourg-en-Bresse to abuse of animals – a penalty punishable by six months imprisonment and 7500 euro fine – and launched a petition asking authorities the “immediate closure” of factory farming.

the environment Minister, Segolene Royal, calling this “intolerable”, said on Twitter have asked the prefect of the Ain inspection and “a decision that day” and “controls the giant farms” . “It is lamentable , added Stéphane Le Foll, Minister of Agriculture, on France Info. If necessary, I will close this breeding. He bears responsibility for all other working properly. “

Space A4 sheet

the images were shot April 27 in two hangars serving nearly 100,000 chickens. The birds are locked during sixty-eight weeks since the age of 18 weeks until their reform, without ever seeing the light of day. Only activity: lay eggs received by a mechanical belt. The GAEC Perrat, which nevertheless boasts on its website “real cool œ eggs” and “a perfect bacteriological safety” with cage culture, produces 160,000 eggs a day. According to the survey L214, they are especially sold under the brand Matins (April Group) in at least five stores supermarkets Auchan, Carrefour, Casino, Intermarche and Super U

” The video reveals serious and repeated breaches of health regulations and welfare of animals “, sets Sébastien Arsac, spokesman the L214 association, which opposes all animal exploitation. The European Directive on the protection of laying hens, adopted in 1999 and entered into force in 2012, requires and the chickens have a living space of 750 cm ² (actually, hardly more than an A4 sheet), together with a nest, a perch and litter such that pecking and scratching. At the GAEC Perrat, plastic strips serve as nests, perches iron bars, but it lacks the litter.

Livestock conditions of battery hens have long been known and denounced by associations of animal welfare. L214, originally a dozen inquiries about it – beyond his videos on slaughterhouses – had already released images of the inside of the GAEC Perrat in June 2013. But she had to stop broadcasting, following a decision of the Regional Court in Bourg-en-Bresse, from July of the same year, advancing a “violation of privacy” .

“Three years later, the situation remains unchanged and rearing conditions of hens are still as miserable , denounced Sebastian Arsac. The failures persist despite the many residents of alerts, employees, health authorities and the Departmental protecting populations. “

Two prefectural orders issued in March 2015 and January 2016 found nonconformities and prescribes corrective measures, including the accumulation of droppings and the significant proliferation of flies. Livestock has also been ordered on the health aspect, and its activity was briefly reduced early April, at the behest of a third prefectural after local residents complaints related nuisances.

“Some work had been delayed. It was set up a ventilation in the shed droppings, to improve the drying “, Dominic justifies Raphoz, co-manager of the GAEC Perrat, who claims to have spent 4 million euros in 2012 to restore the operation of 20 employees. “We work with the living. It is therefore not immune to disturbances, even if everything is done to reduce , he said. This happens in all other farms in the country. “

Fireworks brands

France is the leading European producer of eggs, with 14.8 billion units in 2014, according to data from the poultry sector (Itavi). Sixty-eight percent of the 47 million laying hens are kept in cages today, against 25% in buildings with access to the outdoors and 7% to the ground without access to the outdoors. The Hexagon is lagging behind its European neighbors, who recorded an average of 56% of battery farms.

However, French consumers were 90% to show support the ban of livestock battery, according to an Opinion Way survey published in late 2014. But practical changes are constrained by the price differences, lack of knowledge of the code on the shell indicates the origin (if it starts with 0, it is’ organic farming, for one, full of air, 2 floor, and 3, battery), and trademark tricks – as Matins, which displays “fresh eggs” on label eggs of the GAEC Perrat.

Most importantly, only a third of the egg production is sold in shell to consumers. The second period has elapsed in food service, while the third is for the food (pasta, pastries, etc.). Unless you buy organic products, that ban the battery cage, then it turns almost impossible to trace the origin of the egg and the hen.