Day: June 9, 2025

Birds, Environmental, Farm Animals, General News, Live Transport, Religion/Philosophy

EU – When It Comes To Eggs; The Food Labelling System Tells You Everything You Need To Know; But Not With Meat Products. Surely As Consumers; We Should Have A Right To Make Informed Choices ?

Click to access SR-2024-23_EN.pdf

European consumers quite rightly, are a fairy switched on bunch when it comes to knowing what goes into the food that they eat. Yes or no ?

But, as animal campaigners; we question what we consider to be ‘adequate’ information relating to certain issues re animals and the food chain.

Lets take the humble egg as an example. There are more than 350 million laying hens in the EU. All these hens combined produce close to 6.7 MILLION TONNES of eggs each and every year.

The EU is rather good when it comes to standards and labelling for eggs purchased withing the EU (and still including the UK even after Brexit); of course; the UK was once an EU member state; so labelling was a regulatory requirement.

With EU / UK egg labelling; there is a Regulation – https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32008R0589 which defines the regulations for standards in egg production. Organic production methods; Free Range; Barn or Cage – the labelling system clearly provides the consumer at the supermarket with full details of their eggs – what system was used in their production – so that THE CONSUMER IS FULLY INFORMED AND CAN MAKE A CLEAR CHOICE of whet they are purchasing.

There is no confusion; to the point that every single egg is stamp marked as shown below to include the production method used; the country of origin; and a unique ‘farm ID’ in case of any specific issues relating to the production farm.

Pretty good well monitored and consumer informed system throughout the EU; which we as animal welfare campaigners fully support. The consumer is informed and they make their individual purchases accordingly.

Above – Caged Hens – NO

Below – Free Range – YES.

As welfare campaigners we say there is only one way for consumers to purchase their eggs – if they want to eat eggs – GO FREE RANGE. Compare the free range hens plumage above to that of battery hens below – is that image simply not enough alone to make egg eaters buy NON CAGED eggs.

So ok; there you basically have it – Consumer clear labelling relating to egg production, which allows them to make their independent clear choices.

So for this post; the heading basically says ‘when it comes to meat products, is the EU really telling the consumer what they would like to know?’. We don’t think so; if the labelling system is good for eggs; why the shortfalls for meat products in labelling ?

Cards on the table; I [Mark] have been a non-meat eater for 35+ years. Anything ‘that ever had a face’ is not part of my diet; but I accept there are still lots of carnivores out there. One question though I would ask them is simply; if EU legislation attempts to provide you with accurate labelling on your eggs, and how they were produced; then why not clear and precise labelling on how your meat was reared; AND ESPECIALLY HOW IT WAS KILLED !

Many EU and British citizens; when asked, simply abhor the thought of live animals being ritually slaughtered. But, unlike the ‘egg labelling system’; are EU consumers being led up the garden path when it comes to specific meat labelling?. There are two main methods of ritual slaughter which does not involve pre-stunning an animal before its death; – Shechita (Kosher) – the Jewish method; and Halal which is the Muslim method. Here is more reading from the UK Government about this:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/halal-and-kosher-slaughter#requirements-for-slaughter-without-stunning-for-kosher-meat

Above – Kosher method Beef Slaughter

Below – Halal method Chicken Slaughter

Click to access LDM_BRI%282012%29120375_REV2_EN.pdf

EU law requires that all animals being slaughters for the food chain are stunned and made unconscious prior to killing so that death should be ‘painless’; – hmm; ‘painless’ ? – we say ask the animals going through the process !

But within the EU there are exceptions for religious slaughter as detailed above. Jews and Muslims represent around 6% of the EU population.

Data from Ireland; an EU Member State (MS) showed that around 2010, showed that with just a 1% Muslim population; 6% of cattle, and 34% of sheep were slaughter without stunning. In a 2006/7 survey, it was seen that in France, another MS; 40% of Calves; 25% of Bovine cattle; and no less than 54% of Sheep were slaughtered without stunning.

The EU market for Kosher meat was worth around 5 Billion Euros in 2008.

THE REAL EU MEAT LABELLING ISSUE.

The following is very informative reading for reasons why there is NO standard legislation throughout the entire EU member states when it comes to meat produced by pre-stunning or religious specific methods. We especially suggest looking at the the data on ANNEX 7 – The Practice of Religious Slaughter In Every EU Member State.

Click to access EPRS_IDA(2023)751418_EN.pdf

Then we can unfortunately understand the EU reluctance, or refusal, to publish concise EU consumer – wide labelling about meat and meat products. When you enter an EU supermarket and are opposed to ritual animal slaughter; does the ‘EU labelling system’ express YOUR animal welfare concerns as a consumer ? – WE WOULD SUGGEST A BIG ‘NO’ !!

But then after all; religion never caused any wars; did it ?

And who in their right mind would want the EU to end up with Egg on its face ?

Birds, Farm Animals, General News, Uncategorized

(UK) Secret video reveals gas chamber deaths of egg industry hens

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/chickens-gas-chamber-video-tesco-b2760844.html

Exclusive: World-first footage exposed of birds past their egg-laying days being suffocated for supermarket meat

Monday 09 June 2025 17:26 BST

Secretly recorded footage reveals hens apparently writhing in distress and desperately trying to escape as they are suffocated to death to provide meat for supermarkets including Tesco.

In what’s thought to be the first-ever video of its kind, the birds are seen twisting their necks as they are killed with carbon dioxide. They are also heard gasping for breath and emitting high-pitched shrieks.

The recording – which activists say was made at an abattoir endorsed by RSPCA Assured – shows hens being lowered into the gas chamber and dying over the course of several minutes.

Hens were filmed apparently trying to escape from the crates before flopping back in; at times their eyes were open and they were calling (Joey Carbstrong)

Critics said the scenes laid bare the “horrors” behind egg production in the UK, including the fate of even free-range and organic hens.Hens whose egg production has declined are dubbed “spent”, before they are killed and their carcasses are packaged for meat.

Animal-lovers have for years objected to the gassing of pigs with carbon dioxide, warning the animals “burn from the inside out” and suffer immensely in the last minutes of their lives.

Last year 99 per cent of “spent” hens were stunned and slaughtered with CO2; and 77 per cent of meat chickens were killed this way, according to government figures.

In recent years carbon dioxide as a slaughter method has gradually replaced electrical water bath stunning, which raised concerns over the inconsistency of stuns.

Activist Joey Carbstrong said the footage highlighted the discrepancy between images of egg production and the reality (Joey Carbstrong)

The footage, taken with hidden cameras, shows hens – female chickens used for laying eggs – twisting in distress as they die, and some birds apparently trying to escape.

The floor of the gas chamber was littered with dead birds that had jumped out of the crates, according to activist, filmmaker and vegan advocate Joey Carbstrong, who installed the cameras.

Mr Carbstrong and other activists say they shot the video at an abattoir in West Yorkshire run by HCF Poultry. The company denies it was shot at its premises.

HCF supplies Cranswick Foods, one of the UK’s largest meat producers, which processes the hens into chicken-meat products widely sold in Britain.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by either Cranswick or the abattoir as using CO2 is an entirely lawful way to slaughter chickens. However, Mr Carbstrong said the video exposed “the callous treatment of free-range hens when they are no longer profitable”.

“This footage dismantles the industry’s carefully curated image of ‘happy hens’ and reveals the horrifying truth of how these sensitive birds are discarded,” he said.

The footage included a paper label with HCF’s name and address on it (Joey Carbstrong)

“The public are being misled by labelling and have a right to know the reality behind what they are buying.”

Mr Carbstrong added: “Egg-laying hens have been genetically manipulated to produce around 300 eggs per year – far beyond the 10 to 15 eggs naturally laid by their ancestor, the red junglefowl.

“This excessive egg production takes a severe toll on their bodies in multiple ways. Regardless of whether they are free-range, barn-kept or caged, most hens are crammed by the tens of thousands into filthy sheds, where disease runs rampant and cannibalism of dead and dying birds is widespread.

“After just 18 months of relentless exploitation, they are forced to experience a terrifying and agonising death, before being processed into food products.”

The Independent has previously revealed one case of hens being kept in “cruelly overcrowded” cages with insufficient water and another when sick and dying hens were found alongside living ones at a free-range egg farm supplying leading supermarkets as well as Marks & Spencer.

Around 35 million “spent” hens a year are killed for their meat, figures show. HCF can process 10,500 birds per hour, according to a document from 2018, the latest available.

Even free-range hens are put into gas chambers, activists say (Getty/iStock)

Jenny L Mace, an associate lecturer in animal welfare at the University of Winchester, wrote in a report on the footage that the most concerning findings were the high-pitched shrieks, gasping, collisions with equipment, and chickens falling against one another and out of the crates.

“Without use of a significantly less aversive gas or gas mixture, it is difficult to see how this method equates to a viable (high-welfare) replacement to the former slaughter method of shackling chickens upside down and stunning in a water bath, and a humane death,” she wrote.

She said CO2 caused respiratory distress, adding that describing it as an anaesthetic “may be misleading” because of the distress inhaling it causes.

“There is no suggestion of this case being a ‘bad apple’; this is standard practice and in accordance with legislation,” she wrote.

Egg-laying hens have been genetically manipulated to produce around 300 eggs a year, Joey Carbstrong said (Getty/iStock)

Andrew Opie, of the British Retail Consortium, said on behalf of Tesco and other supermarkets:“Our members know how important animal welfare is to their customers and take their responsibilities to animal welfare very seriously to ensure that expected standards are being met.”

RSPCA Assured said the birds in the footage were already unconscious and were not in pain.

A spokesperson said the footage was deeply upsetting but that carbon dioxide was permitted under RSPCA welfare standards, adding: “However, RSPCA standards set requirements that go above the law to ensure a more humane process.

“Due to their physiology, when birds lose consciousness their brains no longer have control over their bodies, which can cause involuntary movements as seen in the footage. This can be incredibly difficult to watch but the birds are actually unconscious when this happens, and are not experiencing pain.”

Cranswick Foods did not respond to a request to comment.