2 day old chicks (nasty warning)

[Smotheroffive]

...being crushed alive en masse!!

I know this from films shown in my DCs schools.

AIBU to be so shocked and upset about this, or wondering if enough people know and it doesn't even bother them, or perhaps have no idea this goes on.

I have always tried to buy free range eggs, and bacon, etc, but also organic assuming their standards of animal welfare would prefend such awful treatment of live young.

Does this happen routinely in organic farming too? surely not, or I think I might have to stop buying eggs! AIBU to consider doing that?

Yes i did read the article and it was suggesting livestock cannot be farmed on uplands, marshes and commons without supplements, routine drugs, wormers and flukucides. Thats complete bollocks, author clearly just dependent on them and unable to think outside the box, or even further back than the very recent invention of flukicide!?

It's good to be able to have the choice to use them if you need to though isn't it. I don't fluke mine as a rule (for example) but if we have a very wet summer I'd be tempted to look at it (stream in field). I'd hate to not be able to just speak with my vet and make an informed choice there and then.

Ah, I get you online yes, that's what I got from it, but I don't know better wrt upland grazing and pp.to know its was actually not the case, only that but seemed a ridiculous thing to do to put real animals through this catastrophe waiting to happen (based on what they claimed about knowing what an ill fit for livestock the environment was)

You can use flukicides, and any other necessary drug, on organic animals if they need it: ie, have fluke. The only problem would be if they get fluke so often it's actually becoming routine. Then your other non chemical anti fluke strategies are failing and you need to address that (if you care about flukicides in the environment of course).

These places are not an ill fit for livestock, they are their heartland, livestock keeping simply underwent changes in the 1700s which has made british livestock more productive, but also more fragile. This can be consciously overcome. Livestock have been on the marginal land - the steppes, the mountains, the deserts etc globally for millennia.

Does it take long to get permission from the SA to use certain meds, @online, or do you tell them after and just refer to your medicine book to see patterns (or hopefully just a few occasional one-offs for various things?).

OnlineAlienator well that is good to hear, as I for one would hate to see the end of free roaming livestock on common grazing, including the horses cattle and sheep, and whatever else.

I love the sound of all your rare breeds(native breeds?) Heyha also wasn't sure whether you realised that you wouldn't get an email to @OnlineAlienator by abbreviating the name as that would go to whoever has the abbreviated name.

It's possible we'll see the end of livestock on commons, hills, marshes etc due to economics, and if we can't retain enough with the genetics to survive without the drugs, which is kind if an economic factor in itself as vets, the drug industry etc have to justify their money.

As for soil association - you can treat anything you like whenever you like with anything you like without prior approval/dispensation, but that animal cannot then be sold as Organic. It is unlikely that you have worm or fluke problems SO dire SO quickly in the majority of your animals so regularly that you cant seek prior approval - basically, if that is happening, you perhaps havent made the grade as a farmer....

I've read a few times on this thread that as the scary film type stuff doesn't happen in the UK, it shouldn't be discussed. I agree that it should be clear where and when they are taken but to me it's still wrong though.

It's just frustrating that the films don't acknowledge that they arent representative of the entire industry. Indeed, one could argue they like to suggest that they are...

Keep in mind that not all our eggs and meat come from the UK. So the video your child watched may well be very relevant!! Esp eggs used as an ingredient in another product..........

Local farmer to us caught using illegal drugs on his cattle. Was doing it for years!!! All in the UK meat chain........

I don't doubt there are always some who will do anything in any part of any industry illegally. There's always a need for standards being achieved and penalties for breaches, especially in protecting animal welfare and welfare practices that could be harmful to human consumers. It doesn't condemn the whole industry.

It depends whether you live on raw ingredients I guess. If you buy organic though, the standards apply for all the elements of the product, including any eggs used.

Yes, I care that it's happening elsewhere in the world of course, but I can't bring myself to be part of that, so I avoid other countries' practices wherever I can and be aware of them. The thread was about shocking and upsetting films falsely portraying the meat trade, or it being used as a tool to mislead UK consumers.

OP, the documentary is up to date and valid. No scaremongering,it is all factual. Sorry if it offends.

Think that's a bit simplistic,and ignoring what others here in the industry say. BTW didn't view the video

I do not deny that chick mincing and gassing happens on a large scale. People focus on cows and sheep a lot but we actually have swift slaughter methods for those - things go haywire when we have large amounts of little things to kill that we cant give individual attention to - we mince or gas chicks, leave fish to suffocate, and boil molluscs and crustaceans alive.

I also know what is required to fix this (returning to dusl purpose poultry) and it would make chicken and eggs so expensive it would instantly kill off kfc, nandos, and all the chickenbased wraps and sandwiches and nuggets we love, let alone all the things that use eggs as ingredients so it isnt happening.

I dont eat much chicken personally.

Also, just to say, I buy pre-made foods that include British eggs, etc...like coop (its states on the packaging

kill off KFC, nandos... I couldn't care less. Hardly a great loss, they are the main supporters of poor animal standards, all for the cheap chicken, not that they are suffering, they're the ones creaming money out of this

Jeez you dont think i said that because i love it do you? I never eat kfc and have never had nandos - its more about cheap chicken being economically important. It drives fast food.

No online just venting at them supporting the poor welfare for cheap meat so they can make so much from it. Sickening, and glad you highlighted it.