Exposed misery at Scandi Standard hatchery in Sweden

– It is terrible. We have now seen the suffering at Kronfågel in all stages of production, in the fast growth of chickens and at the slaughterhouse. It is systematic animal abuse, and it needs to be stopped. The person that is most responsible is the Swedish minister for rural affairs, said Benny Andersson, CEO of Project 1882.  

An activist at the Swedish organisation Djurrättsalliansen have been filming undercover after they took employment at the Kronfågel hatchery Swehatch AB, owned by Scandi Standard. The footage shows chicks that hatches in factory-like environment in Sweden and are handled more like potatoes than the sentient beings they are. The chicks are transported on conveyor belts from the place where they were hatched and falls in crowded plastic baskets at the end of the line. They are after that transported to the fattening facility. The chicks that are sick or injured should be sorted out and killed, but the footage shows extreme failings to do that. Half a million chicks are hatched there every week, and they start to eat on their living and dead siblings, in lack of other things to eat.  

According to news in Swedish television, TV4, that were first to publish the exposure, it is more than 11 years since the hatchery had any animal welfare inspection of an independent authority. The competent authorities say that they do not have enough resources to inspect more facilities than they already do. It is up to the minister for rural affairs, Peter Kullgren (KD), to decide on how much resources they get.  

Project 1882 work for a ban on fast growing chickens and to dismantle the factory farms, as well as for the meat consumption to decline.  

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Systematic animal cruelty inside Sweden's chicken factory farms