In a first-of-its-kind in the UK, Animal Justice Project is cracking open the UK egg industry, exposing every level of ‘welfare’ as rotten, through a ground-breaking undercover investigation series.
This is The Foul Truth about the British egg industry.
In Spring 2023, Animal Justice Project went undercover to capture the never-before-filmed world of UK chicken catching ‘gangs', as covered in the Mail Online, and in print in the Daily Mail, The Mirror and the Daily Express.
Our investigator embedded themselves with ‘chicken processing specialists’, AD Harvey, whilst they visited farms to carry out ‘depopulation’. What they uncovered exposes yet another Foul Truth about a Rotten industry.
At 76 to 80 weeks old (around 18 months) the egg production of 'laying hens' drops and they’re considered ‘spent’, and therefore useless to the industry.
‘End of lay’ hens are considered a mere ‘by-product’ of the industry and used in ‘low-grade’ animal ‘products’ such as soups, pastes and dog and cat food. Their short and miserable lives end in fear and distress in a secretive process known as ‘depopulation’. We captured horrifying moments as 30,000 birds were emptied from a single shed in just a few hours.
AD Harvey’s ‘gangs’, as they are known in the industry, are deployed to farms to catch, transport and slaughter hens at the ‘end of lay’.
We followed these gangs on their nocturnal visits to farms at every level of welfare – from caged to free-range. No matter what level of ‘welfare’ these eggs are labelled as on supermarket shelves, these hens' lives ended with fear, distress and violence.
AD Harvey's catching process is made up of five stages - each causing untold suffering to the birds that have to endure this cruel treatment.
Hens were forced down off the tiers in their cage-free system by any means necessary. This included pushing, kicking, throwing, hitting, and being pushed along by crates and scared with plastic bags.
Hens were grabbed roughly by one leg and hung upside down. Many were clearly in distress, flapping their wings and squawking. Speed was seen as the highest priority by workers. The hens’ wellbeing was an insignificant factor.
Despite government guidelines stating that a maximum of three hens per hand may be carried by two legs, workers were seen carrying excessive numbers of hens from the sheds to the ‘modules’ for transportation.
In some clips, we estimate that workers were carrying at least five hens in each hand, and by one leg. We know that this is highly likely to cause fractures and obvious distress to hens’ delicate limbs.
Hens were carried to stacks of crates known as ‘modules’ where they were forcefully thrown into the drawers on top of each other. The drawers were slammed shut with little concern for trapped limbs, wings and heads, which could further add to their injuries.
At the end of this violent ordeal, those who survived this onslaught will meet their end at AD Harvey’s slaughterhouse at just a fraction of their natural lifespan.
In the caged farms, the process was identical, apart from the sweeping, as hens were, instead, just roughly grabbed from their cages, as they don’t need to be ‘caught’, with nowhere to escape to.
In the aftermath of ‘depopulation’, we filmed hens severely injured, stunned and left for dead on the shed floors. Hens were seen trying to move with broken legs and wings. Some didn’t move at all.
According to this report written by the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA); "Rough, aggressive catching can result in poultry panicking, becoming distressed and injured. Bone breaks, joint dislocations and bruising can be common and result in birds suffering"
“Incorrect, injurious and inhumane handling techniques were abundant. During collection hens were repeatedly kicked and hit by workers, in ways likely to cause injury. Hens were trodden on, and hit by crates and feeders. They were violently thrown into shed walls. Some hens subsequently appeared severely injured, unable to walk. Others were apparently dead. After being violently stuffed into transport crates, workers were filmed slamming doors onto hens’ heads, wings and legs trapped partly outside of crates. These handling techniques were callous, cruel, likely to cause injury, and likely to violate the UK’s animal welfare legislation.”- Andrew Knight, MANZCVS, DipECAWBM (AWSEL), DipACAW, PhD, FRCVS, PFHEA
Throughout all the farms we visited with AD Harvey, we documented excessive use of force, violence and aggression by workers. Much of this abuse, including kicking, rough handling and incorrect carrying, was witnessed by Oliver Harvey, Catching Manager, and grandson of the company’s Founder, who did nothing to stop it.
In one clip, Oliver Harvey even jokes; “hold them like a tennis racket”.
Hens were treated as little more than objects and carrying excessive numbers of hens was laughed about and made into a game by workers who challenged each other to carry increasing numbers of hens.
“Some people touch them, some people boot ‘em, just got to turn a blind eye" - A worker whilst laughing
“So, wherever and whenever you eat a Sunrise egg, you can be assured of the freshest, tastiest and healthiest eggs, laid by the most contented of hens.” - Sunrise eggs
One of the farms at the centre of our investigation is Kettleby Farm in Leicestershire, run by Sunrise eggs. This RSPCA Assured free-range farm, which prides itself on being ‘high welfare’, supplies eggs to Morrisons, Co-op and Asda supermarkets.
AD Harvey is an *RSPCA Assured company which promises higher welfare standards which “go further than standard legal requirements”.
What we filmed not only violated the rights of these birds but also violated both RSPCA and government guidelines. To make it worse, Oliver Harvey, the Poultry Service Manager, is present when many of these breaches are taking place and simply turns a blind eye.
Prior to releasing the investigation, we contacted the RSPCA Assured about the auditing of catching teams and their guidelines and they said;
“RSPCA Assured member catch teams are subject to thorough annual assessments by specially trained RSPCA Assured assessors who are dedicated to animal welfare and they are subject to unannounced spot checks…The RSPCA standards ensure catching teams have suitable training in animal handling and carry out their role with care and consideration to ensure the safety and wellbeing of birds during the catch…The RSPCA standards go further than the legal requirements and ensure all birds are caught and carried by two legs and carrying distances are kept to a minimum.”
Our investigation exposed AD Harvey blatantly failing to uphold these standards and repeatedly breaking RSPCA Assured’s guidelines by carrying excessive numbers of hens by one leg.
Once again our investigation has highlighted the woeful inadequacy of welfare labels that seek to reassure consumers whilst doing very little to protect animals.
*Since our investigation release and an extended pressure campaign against RSPCA Assured, they have made the decision to permanently ban AD Harvey's catching teams from their RSPCA Assured label.
Update: Since RSPCA Assured were made aware of our investigation footage, they made the decision to suspend AD Harvey pending their own investigations. This was not enough for us. Time and time again we see that these suspensions very rarely lead to meaningful change for abused animals. Companies are given a chance to ‘clean up their act’ before being reinstated and before long these hens will go back to suffering the same abuse.
We therefore launched a petition demanding that RSPCA Assured drop AD Harvey permanently, which was signed by over 4,700 people, including celebrities Peter Egan and Benjamin Zephaniah. After weeks of pressure campaigning, mass media coverage and a peaceful protest at the gates of AD Harvey's slaughterhouse, RSPCA Assured agreed to permanently drop AD Harvey's catching teams from their assurance label. Together we succeeded in ensuring that no hen will be tortured by AD Harvey's catching teams under RSPCA Assured's label again.
Time and time again we expose the horrendous conditions, squalor and suffering hidden behind welfare labels, consumer promises and even, government legislation. As long as companies are profiting from the exploitation of farmed animals, they will have no meaningful protection.
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.
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