All intensively-reared hens have the ends of their beaks removed when they are chicks. This is done with an automatic heated infra-red burning tool, in order to prevent hens injuring each other in the stressful cages in which they are confined. Contrary to the claims of poultry farmers, this procedure is not comparable to a person having their nails cut. It is more similar to having your lips or fingers cut off: the injury caused to each bird results in chronic pain that can easily persist for a considerable time; the injury is so severe, it is often unable to heal, and abnormal nerve tissue growth occurs. Demand that the UK government completely outlaws this barbaric procedure, and in doing so, help undermine the industrial factory farming practices that have led to the widespread adoption of such tortuous methods.
For more information about intensive poultry farms, please Google 'from shell to hell'.
We the undersigned, demand that the UK government re-establish the legislative objective to ban the debeaking of hens in UK poultry farms. Allowing this practice to continue exemplifies the great disregard for animal welfare currently widespread in British poultry farming. The UK should act unilaterally to impose greater requirements for poultry welfare, and improve on current EU standards, in order to demonstrate that the cruelty of intensive animal factories is unacceptable in modern Britain.
