Chicken Fraud: Those Responsible Are Now Being Reported

The animal rights organization Tier im Fokus recently exposed serious abuses at several Swiss chicken farming facilities. Now the justice system is being called in. The Foundation for the Animal in Law (TIR) is filing criminal charges against five operations for animal cruelty.

Serious Abuses in Swiss Chicken Farming

Earlier this week, the animal rights organization Tier im Fokus published extensive material from Swiss chicken farming facilities. The footage from five different operations shows serious abuses: numerous injured, sick, and dead chickens, some of which are being trampled by their fellow animals. "These are the victims of factory farming," says Tobias Sennhauser, president of Tier im Fokus. Indeed, a mortality rate of one to four percent is an open secret in the industry.

Based on the material published by Tier im Fokus, TIR has now filed criminal charges of multiple counts of animal cruelty with the responsible public prosecutors against all of the operators involved. "The footage shows clear violations of the fundamental principles of animal welfare legislation," says Vanessa Gerritsen, deputy director of TIR. The law requires that dying and injured animals be treated immediately and, if necessary, killed painlessly. In the operations shown, this legal requirement is being disregarded on multiple counts.

Authorities Knowingly Tolerate the Conditions

Sick, injured, and dead chickens are found in every large factory farm — every single day. Legally, however, nothing changes: “Even widespread abuses remain illegal,” says Vanessa Gerritsen. TIR has been criticizing the enforcement of animal welfare laws for years. “The authorities knowingly tolerate these appalling conditions.” Furthermore, TIR's recently published analysis of Swiss animal welfare criminal cases revealed how leniently authorities act when it comes to chickens in particular. Only 1.6% of all criminal cases over the past ten years involved chicken keepers — this despite the fact that around 70 million broiler chicks were produced in 2016 alone.

The failure of the authorities is evident, for example, in the canton of Bern. A farm in the Bernese Seeland that has now been reported was already reported to the cantonal veterinary authority by TIR in 2016, after Tier im Fokus published footage from inside the barn. At the time, the operator had raised the perches for the chickens in violation of regulations, so that the chickens could not reach them. In 2017, the same situation was found again.

Subsidies for “animal-friendly” factory farming

As if that weren't enough: the federal government describes this factory farming as “particularly animal-friendly” and promotes it with taxpayers' money. These subsidies are distributed with a watering can: 95 percent of all broiler chickens in Switzerland live in so-called “particularly animal-friendly” housing systems.

For Tier im Fokus, this amounts to deceiving citizens. “We are being taken for fools at the expense of the chickens,” says Tobias Sennhauser. Tier im Fokus therefore launched a petition calling for the abolition of these subsidies:www.hühner-schwindel.ch

Further information:Programme 10vor10 | 20 Minuten | More on the animal welfare problem and animal rights