INVESTIGATION: Horror Revealed Within Free-range Egg Industry
Over 13,7 billion eggs are produced each year in Germany, but few people know just how those eggs are produced, and for many shoppers the grim reality of life for free-range hens will come as a shock. A new investigation from Animal Equality Germany reveals the cruelty inside free-range farms. Showing the reality of the birds whose lives are dedicated to the production of eggs.
Animal Equality Germany investigated four farms located in the state of Baden-Württemberg, where thousands of animals live out their entire lives crammed into barns, some farms housing up to 12,000 hens. This truly is egg production on an industrial scale, but these aren’t factory farms. Two of the farms investigated have been certified with high welfare schemes, which are considered to provide the highest standards for organic food in the world. The other two are labeled with the regional high-quality schemes. These farms also supply major supermarket chains. The images show:
- Animals crammed together and with clear signs of stress.
- Sick, injured and dying chickens in the barn.
- Carcasses left for days and even weeks to decompose.
- Hens pecking each other’s feathers and signs of cannibalism.
- Filthy housing conditions, ulcers, and other injuries which received no veterinarian treatment.
- Animal Equality Germany ↩︎
- http://www.bmel.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/2014/091-EierWissenswertes.html ↩︎
- http://www.bmel.de/SharedDocs/Pressemitteilungen/2014/091-EierWissenswertes.html ↩︎