PETA calls for change

Hyderabad: The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) investigation report, based on a video footage of cruelty to chicks in poultry farms, has thrown open a number of unethical practices followed in the poultry farm22s.

The investigation revealed that millions of male chicks which are considered as useless to the industry are burned, crushed, thrown into rubbish bins or even fed when alive by the top players of the egg industry.

PETA alleges that the present method of breeding as well as transportation sans cleanliness and ethical practices. The investigations revealed that incubators in hatcheries lack space and as a result birds jostle for space and its organs protrude leading to health problems.

Secondly, while determining the sex, workers handle the chicks roughly and in a gruesome act. Workers cut off large portion of female beaks with a searing hot blade.

PETA demands that the prevalent methods be replaced by new ovo sexing technology, where the chick’s gender is determined before they hatch which potentially prevents large scale deaths of male chicks.

With respect to transportation, PETA recommends the government to bring in stringent laws that ensure there is enough space for chicks and hens in vehicles. “From packing mutilated hens into tiny cages to grinding up, drowning, burning live chicks, the egg and meat industries are rife with cruelty” says PETA India CEO Poorva Joshipura.

The investigation report lists a few big companies that follow cruel acts that include Diamond Group, Suguna Food, SH Group-Srinivasa Hatcheries, SR Group, Venkateshwara Hatcheries Pvt Ltd, Skylark Group and many more.

The video footage documents various killing methods used by companies such as Diamond Group; Suguna Foods, a household name in the poultry sector and India's number one producer of chickens for meat; SH Group, whose flagship company, Srinivasa Hatcheries Ltd, commands a staggering 95% of the Layer market in the poultry sector in its area of operations, according to its website; and SR Group, whose production of chicks for the meat industry stands at 60,00,000 per month, while its breeder farms house 5,00,000 birds.

The video also shows sexing practices by Venkateshwara Hatcheries Pvt Ltd, commonly referred to as Venky's – as well as chicks crushed in transport from Skylark Hatcheries Pvt Ltd of Skylark Group.