Undercover: The suffering of chickens inside Flemish slaughterhouse

The footage shows the suffering of chickens raised for meat (also called ‘broilers’) in the slaughterhouse. The animals are hung from their legs on the slaughter line to be first stunned in the electric water bath and then automatically have their throats slit at the bleeding knife while hanging upside down. We can clearly see how a chick misses both the water bath and the knife. The chick is pulled out of the slaughter line and has its throat slit while being fully conscious. Some animals still flap their wings after they come out of the bath, as can be seen in the Animal Rights footage. Some animals still have eye reflexes or make swallowing movements. Chickens can also appear stunned, but only physically 'immobile' due to the shock. So they are still conscious, feel everything while their throats are being slit.

On the slaughter line we see a chick hung from just one leg. As a result, the current of the waterbath will probably pass through the wing instead of the head. "In the short time that we have been able to film, we can still see several animals flapping their wings between the water bath and the automatic knife, and certainly one chick that escapes both the water bath and the automatic knife because it has been hung incorrectly," says Hartland.

In Flanders, a large majority of poultry slaughterhouses still use waterbath stunning. Scientific studies state that at least 5% of chickens are not properly anaesthetised through a water bath, which in Belgium amounts to an annual total of more than 10 million chickens. That is the most conservative estimate by scientists. The most pessimistic estimate comes to 50%, or more than 100 million chickens slaughtered without anaesthesia each year.

Although European Directive 1099/2009 prescribes a minimum current of 100 mA for the water bath for chickens, the Belgian slaughterhouses were allowed to violate these standards for economic reasons until 2019 with the approval of the FPS Public Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment in Flanders. 60 to 80 mA was applied for fear of carcass damage. This is an aesthetic and commercial consideration, not one of food safety. Haemorrhages in chest and leg muscles are visible as reddish-brown dots (so-called point bleeding) on, for example, chicken fillet.

A Dutch government report in 2009 wrote that anaesthesia of poultry with an electric water bath does not guarantee proper anaesthesia and that this type of stunning should be phased out. More than 10 years ago, our northern neighbours already knew that electric stunning poses too many risks. In the vast majority of poultry slaughterhouses there, the animals are now first stunned with gas in the crates and then hung on the conveyor belt. They are unconscious even before they are hooked up.

The European Regulation on the protection of animals at the time of killing says: "The killing of animals and related operations shall ensure that any avoidable pain, distress or suffering to the animals is avoided". This is not the case with waterbath stunning. The live attachment and the failure of stunning cause suffering that can be avoided by choosing another stunning method. The waterbath method must be banned immediately!
If the Belgian authorities do not do this immediately, Animal Rights will see if a court ruling on this is possible.

Animal Rights demands a large-scale and independent investigation of all Belgian slaughterhouses and demands the immediate closure of all failing slaughterhouses. And that includes slaughterhouses with waterbath stunning as standard. Hartland: "These are not isolated cases. This is a failing system that needs to be tackled on a large scale. Inside how many more slaughterhouses do we have to film before the government finally intervenes?”

From birth to death, the existence of industrial chickens is characterised by suffering. Raised for meat, born without their mothers, housed in small and overcrowded areas, limbs break when caught and stuffed into crates for transport, and then slaughtered in a way that demonstrably fails in stunning. Even if the anaesthetic works, the chicks end their lives in panic and stress. Hartland: "The chicks in the industry have a short and miserable life in overcrowded stalls, where they can barely express any natural behaviour. They have never felt sunlight and never had the chance to feel grass under their feet. Their last moments of life are filled with stress and anxiety"

Animal Rights opposes any form of slaughter and opts for a transition to a plant-based society.