Culling of day-old chicks: opening the debates of Moria?

S. Aerts; R. Boonen; V. Bruggeman; J. De Tavernier; E. Decuypere

Culling of day-old chicks: opening the debates of Moria?

In: Ethical futures: bioscience and food horizons

Authors:

S. Aerts

S. Aerts ¹Animal Welfare and Ethology Group, Katholieke Hogeschool Sint-Lieven, Hospitaalstraat 23, 9100 Sint- Niklaas, Belgium; Stef.Aerts@kahosl.be
²Boerenbond Chair Agriculture & Society, Centre for Science, Technology and Ethics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 1 – bus 2456, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

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R. Boonen

R. Boonen ²Boerenbond Chair Agriculture & Society, Centre for Science, Technology and Ethics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 1 – bus 2456, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

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V. Bruggeman

V. Bruggeman ³Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Schapenstraat 34 – bus 5100, 3000 Leuven, Belgium

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J. De Tavernier

J. De Tavernier ²Boerenbond Chair Agriculture & Society, Centre for Science, Technology and Ethics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 1 – bus 2456, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

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, and

E. Decuypere

E. Decuypere ²Boerenbond Chair Agriculture & Society, Centre for Science, Technology and Ethics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 1 – bus 2456, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
⁴Biosystems Department, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30 – bus 2456, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 115–122

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.3920/9789086866731_019

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Intensive selection in layer poultry has resulted in a situation in which the male sex is no longer useable in a meat production context. This results in a massive culling of day-old male chicks in hatcheries (approximately 4.2 billion/year, worldwide). The main techniques used in the European Union are maceration and gassing. Recently, significant societal debates have been raised on this issue, especially in The Netherlands, and in the United Kingdom. This will probably spread across Europe. For a number of reasons, this is a highly polemic practice. Not only is it little known, it also involves a visually disturbing action on a small and furry animal. The ethical questions that arise on this issue may not be the same as the societal ones. There are two distinct fields of ethical issues to be considered: (1) issues directly relevant to the animals; i.e. animal welfare problems associated with the sexing and/or killing of the chicks, and (2) issues relevant to humans; i.e. the killing as such, including the age of the chicks, its integrity, its naturalness, and the sustainability of the practice. Moreover, some of the alternatives may lead to genetic modification in animals, and this may in turn provoke new debates. Animal welfare during sexing can be assured in lines where plumage colour or plumage growth are sex-related traits. Taking the complexity of the procedure and the time to death as the most important risk factors, maceration seems to be the ethically best culling technique available, but may be societally less acceptable. Pre- or earlyincubation sexing techniques – currently still commercially unavailable – would avoid all production of male chicks, thereby preventing any welfare problems, while at the same time being economically and ecologically more profitable. The most far-reaching criticism against this practice, underlying most mentioned above, is that it represents a profound instrumentalisation of animals. Producing and then killing day-old animals because they have no more use than being feed sources seems a serious violation of the animal’s telos. It is apparent that even the alternatives resulting in no male chicks being produced or born are prone to the same criticism. The entire discussion hints at the question of whether the killing of animals as such is morally defensible. The issues entailed therein are mostly the same, but generally more pronounced. In that view, the day-old chicks case can be regarded as a pars-pro-toto for animal production as a whole.

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Ethical futures: bioscience and food horizons

E-Book ISBN:: 9789086866731

Publisher:: Wageningen Academic

Print Publication Date:: 30 Oct 2009

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Culling of day-old chicks: opening the debates of Moria?

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Ethical futures: bioscience and food horizons

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