The Bundestag has slightly relaxed the regulations prohibiting the killing of chicks in laying hen husbandry. Interventions to determine the sex in the egg and a possible termination of incubation will only be prohibited from the 13th “incubation day” and no longer – as previously planned – from the seventh day. According to the current state of research, chicken embryos do not feel pain before the 13th “day of incubation”, according to the amendment to the law, which has been approved by the deputies.
The killing of millions of male chicks, which are economically uninteresting for hatcheries, has been banned in Germany since last year. Instead, methods should be used to identify the sex in the egg and not let male chicks hatch in the first place. A second level of prohibition should come into effect next year, after which this intervention is only permitted up to the seventh “incubation day” – this period has now been extended.
