France as part of its animal welfare reforms has announced to outlaw the cruel practice of killing unwanted male chicks by 2021.

Male chicks are commercially unviable in the meat industry because they provide neither eggs nor grow as fast as hens for meat production and therefore they are routinely killed shortly after they’re born in a practice rampant around the world.

Around 7 billion are culled every year with them being either ground up alive, gassed, electrocuted, or smothered in plastic bags.

However, France is set to put an end to this cruel practice.

At a press conference in Paris on Tuesday,  French Agriculture Minister Didier Guillaume announced the ban, stating: “Nothing will be like it was before.

“We want to move forward, there’s no going back. The government is committed to it.

“The aim is to oblige firms to do this by the end of 2021. We need to find a method that works on a large scale.”

Seleggt technology

In 2015, Germany, where over 45 million male chicks are shredded each year, was the first country to outlaw the culling practice but extended the ban last year allowing it to continue till an alternative method for gender identification in eggs was found.

The German government told CNN that its scientists were working on “Seleggt technology“- a embryonic sex determination method, which will help farmers selectively destroy eggs before they hatch. The technology will be fully developed and implemented by the end of this year.

Mr Guillaume also announced a ban on castrating pigs without anesthesia, and added the country would join hands with Germany and Spain to sign up to a new well-being labelling system for animals starting in 2021.

“The ministry is going to publish regulatory texts in the next few weeks to move towards the banning of painful practices in farming husbandry,” he added.

Activists response

While campaigners and activists welcomed the changes, they  believe the government needs to do more.

French animal protection group L214 said the measures were inadequate and failed to address basic problems

“There is nothing on slaughter conditions, nor on how to exit from intensive animal farming,” the group told AFP news agency.

 PETA spokeswoman Anissa Putois said: “These practices and many other forms of mutilation, unnatural confinement and violent slaughter, are still happening in the meat and animal products industries around the world.”

“The best alternative to these cruel and barbaric practices is to make the transition to a vegan diet which does not expose sentient beings to suffering,” she added.

• Read: Fury as Council set to approve 270,00 bird ‘chicken prison’

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