Concealed behind vast concrete walls, millions of vulnerable chicks are hatched every week; a short life of suffering awaits them. Annyalla Chicks is a 2022 National Egg & Poultry Award Winner, but industry prizes mean nothing to animals; all they do is aid in the birds’ exploitation. The company is RSPCA Assured and approved by Red Tractor. The rights of these tiny hatchlings were violated from the get-go, and no so-called welfare standards will help them. As featured in the Independent.
As the hundreds of thousands of chicks hatched each day, they were not welcomed by protective mothers but rather met with plastic trays, loud factory noises and harsh artificial lighting. Those hatched in the top trays frequently fell out onto the floor, plummeting many feet and leaving them unable to access food or water. Workers grabbed them without any regard for the chicks’ well-being, not checking them over for injuries and throwing them back into the crates.
In a shocking scene of horror, a worker pulled a trolley out of the incubator, rolling it over newly hatched chicks on the floor and then treading on them. No compassion was shown to the chicks. Instead, they were thrown back in an act of complete disregard.
The thousands of chicks were transported to be ‘graded’ by workers. The grading system concludes whether a chick is ‘suitable’ to be fattened and shipped out to a farm or, tragically, whether they should be killed on-site. Although both male and female chicks will be raised for their flesh, countless chicks are considered unsuitable and unprofitable. They will be thrown into a macerator alive, an abhorrent process largely condemned from the laying hen industry.
The secret slaughter of chicks persists, yet it remains unrecorded, with no legislation or guidelines in place to ensure these companies record the number of chicks being macerated. The day-to-day proceedings of Annyalla Chicks seemed to go largely unregulated, with vet inspections occurring only every six weeks and occurring only on Wednesdays, which are cleaning days when no chicks are ‘processed’.
Chicks became stranded in egg trays designed to allow them to fall into a lower tray. Many of these chicks were filmed having been thrown out with the egg waste, resulting in live chicks clambering among broken egg shells. Once thrown out, it depended on a worker spotting them to move them back to the trays of other young birds.
Many chicks were rejected due to issues including having three legs or abdomen problems. Other tiny hatchlings became trapped in the trays themselves. We witnessed chicks succumbing to their injuries or being cannibalised. With hundreds of thousands of chicks processed each day, they could be waiting in trays for many hours to be graded and shipped, leaving injured and dying individuals vulnerable to agonising suffering for hours.
One worker was recorded saying, “They will sort them out when they’re on the production line, so you don’t need to worry”, after being confronted about chicks with blood on them.
The rejected chicks were thrown onto rotating metal blades to viciously shred them alive. These day-old hatchlings of the chicken ‘meat’ industry are the forgotten victims. The maceration of chicks inside Annyalla’s walls is RSPCA Assured and approved by Red Tractor. RSPCA Assured has even issued guidance on how to kill chicks in this dreadful, violent way, stating it should be carried out in a ‘compassionate manner’.
"Seeing such tiny, young animals treated in such a cruel way was heartbreaking. The cold relentless pace of the production line is a horrific start in life for thousands of chicks. It is impossible to keep up any kind of supposed welfare in these conditions, any suggestion that these chicks can have any quality of life is laughable." - Undercover Investigator
The secretive slaughter of newborn chicks is the tragic reality of the UK’s hidden hatcheries. Consumers must make compassionate decisions and choose veganism to help end this unjust exploitation.
Animal Justice Project is fully committed to investigating reports of animal abuse on farms. If you have witnessed suspicious activity or suspect an establishment should be investigated, please contact us with more information.
You can call us on +44 20 3289 6123 or click below to fill out our whistleblower form. All information will be treated with the strictest confidence.
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