{"id":1305927,"name":"Banning of chick culling","unit":"","createdAt":"2026-09-02T19:07:54.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-09-02T19:07:54.000Z","coverage":"","timespan":"2026-2026","datasetId":8146,"shortUnit":"","columnOrder":0,"shortName":"status","catalogPath":"grapher/animal_welfare/2026-09-01/chick_culling_laws/chick_culling_laws#status","descriptionShort":"Legal status of the culling of male chicks in the egg industry.","descriptionProcessing":"Countries for which we found no law on chick culling are shown as \"Not banned\". Chick culling bans are notable legislative events that animal advocacy organizations track closely, so a country with no known law can safely be assumed to have no ban.","type":"string","datasetName":"Chick culling laws","updatePeriodDays":365,"datasetVersion":"2026-09-01","nonRedistributable":false,"display":{},"schemaVersion":2,"processingLevel":"major","presentation":{"topicTagsLinks":["Animal Welfare"]},"descriptionKey":"- Chick culling is the killing of newly hatched male chicks, which cannot lay eggs.\n- Hens that lay eggs come from different breeds than chickens raised for meat (called \"broilers\"). The male chicks of egg-laying breeds grow more slowly and give less meat than broilers, so raising them is not profitable.\n- Billions of male baby chicks are estimated to be killed around the world every year.\n- This data shows the legal status of chick culling, not how widely it is practiced.\n- Bans in Austria and France still allow the killing of baby chicks that are used as animal feed.\n- Bans prohibit killing chicks within the country, but not exporting them. After Germany's ban, male chicks have reportedly been transported to other countries where culling remains legal.\n- There is no EU-wide ban on chick culling. The European Commission has committed to proposing EU-wide rules to end the systematic killing of male chicks by the end of 2026.\n- The main alternative to chick culling is \"in-ovo sexing\", a technology that determines the sex of the embryo inside the egg, so that eggs with male embryos can be discarded well before hatching.\n- Ducklings are also killed soon after hatching in major duck-egg producing countries like China. No law specifically bans the culling of ducklings.\n- France's ban on chick culling explicitly excludes ducklings. In foie gras production it is the female ducklings that are killed, as their livers are less profitable.","dimensions":{"years":{"values":[{"id":2026}]},"entities":{"values":[{"id":15,"name":"Afghanistan","code":"AFG"},{"id":296,"name":"Aland Islands","code":"ALA"},{"id":16,"name":"Albania","code":"ALB"},{"id":17,"name":"Algeria","code":"DZA"},{"id":246,"name":"American Samoa","code":"ASM"},{"id":18,"name":"Andorra","code":"AND"},{"id":19,"name":"Angola","code":"AGO"},{"id":228,"name":"Anguilla","code":"AIA"},{"id":20,"name":"Antigua and 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States","code":"USA"},{"id":256,"name":"United States Virgin Islands","code":"VIR"},{"id":63,"name":"Uruguay","code":"URY"},{"id":62,"name":"Uzbekistan","code":"UZB"},{"id":221,"name":"Vanuatu","code":"VUT"},{"id":257,"name":"Vatican","code":"VAT"},{"id":238,"name":"Venezuela","code":"VEN"},{"id":84,"name":"Vietnam","code":"VNM"},{"id":255,"name":"Wallis and Futuna","code":"WLF"},{"id":248,"name":"Western Sahara","code":"ESH"},{"id":61,"name":"Yemen","code":"YEM"},{"id":60,"name":"Zambia","code":"ZMB"},{"id":80,"name":"Zimbabwe","code":"ZWE"}]}},"origins":[{"id":21209,"title":"Chick culling laws","description":"Male baby chicks are commonly killed in laying hen hatcheries all around the world, as they provide no value for the egg production industry. Only a minority of countries have laws banning this practice. This dataset is a compilation of national laws banning chick culling, gathered from official sources. Countries with no known law on chick culling are assumed to have no ban.","producer":"Various sources","citationFull":"Evidence of laws banning chick culling, and of notable legislative activity in countries without a ban, has been gathered from official sources for each country. Some of those sources were extracted from [a report by the European Institute for Animal Law & Policy](https://animallaweurope.org/wp-content/uploads/Chick-and-Duckling-Killing-UPDATE-December-2024.pdf): \"Chick and Duckling Killing: Achieving an EU-Wide Prohibition\" (White paper, updated December 2024) by Alice Di Concetto, Olivier Morice, Matthias Corion, Simão Santos.\n\nSources for the countries with a full or partial ban (the status and the year when the ban became, or will become, effective are given in the data):\n- Austria: [Section 6(2a) of the Animal Welfare Act (§ 6 Abs. 2a Tierschutzgesetz)](https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFassung.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=20003541). Chicks used for feed production are exempt.\n- Belgium: [Walloon Government communiqué, 3 July 2025 (Communiqué du Gouvernement de Wallonie, 3 juillet 2025)](https://www.wallonie.be/fr/acteurs-et-institutions/wallonie/gouvernement-de-wallonie/communiques-presse/2025-07-03-0). Regional measures only: Wallonia banned the grinding of live chicks (a ban on gassing is under discussion), and Flanders approved [a ban on killing day-old chicks](https://www.vlaamsparlement.be/nl/actueel/nieuws-uit-het-vlaams-parlement/wanneer-komt-er-een-verbod-op-het-doden-van-eendagshaantjes) in its Animal Welfare Code, which will only take effect on a date yet to be decided.\n- France: [Article R 214-17(II) of the Rural Code (Article R 214-17(II) du Code rural et de la pêche maritime)](https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI000045129069). Chicks used for animal feed are exempt.\n- Germany: [Section 4c of the Animal Welfare Act (§ 4c Tierschutzgesetz)](https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/tierschg/BJNR012770972.html).\n- Italy: [Legislative Decree 205/2023 (Decreto Legislativo 7 dicembre 2023, n. 205)](https://www.normattiva.it/eli/id/2023/12/23/23G00212/ORIGINAL). Implementing guidelines on in-ovo sexing were published in September 2025.\n- Luxembourg: [Article 12(13) of the Law of 27 June 2018 on animal protection (Loi du 27 juin 2018 sur la protection des animaux)](https://legilux.public.lu/eli/etat/leg/loi/2018/06/27/a537/jo). General prohibition on killing animals for purely economic reasons.\n- Switzerland: [Article 20(g) of the Animal Protection Ordinance (Art. 20 Bst. g Tierschutzverordnung)](https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/2008/416/de). Shredding of live chicks is banned, and destroying embryos from day 13 of incubation is also banned since February 2025, but killing hatched chicks by gas remains legal.\n\nCountries without a ban, but with formal initiatives or discussions about ending chick culling:\n- European Union: [EU Livestock Strategy, European Commission (COM(2026) 576 final)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52026DC0576). The European Commission intends to propose, by the end of 2026, a revision of animal welfare rules for laying hens and broilers that includes ending the systematic killing of male chicks.\n- Brazil: [Bill PL 783/2024, Chamber of Deputies of Brazil (Projeto de Lei 783/2024, Câmara dos Deputados)](https://www.camara.leg.br/proposicoesWeb/fichadetramitacao?idProposicao=2421303). A bill to ban the cruel disposal of chicks is under discussion in Congress.\n- Netherlands: [Parliamentary letter on the chick culling roadmap, Dutch Government (Kamerbrief aanbieden roadmap eendagshaantjes)](https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/kamerstukken/2025/02/11/kamerbrief-aanbieden-roadmap-eendagshaantjes). A voluntary agreement between the government and the egg sector phases out the culling of male chicks for table-egg production from 2026, but it is not legally binding.\n- Norway: [Parliamentary recommendation on the animal welfare white paper (Innst. 200 S (2024-2025), Stortinget)](https://www.stortinget.no/no/Saker-og-publikasjoner/Publikasjoner/Innstillinger/Stortinget/2024-2025/inns-202425-200s/). A parliamentary proposal to ban chick culling was rejected in 2025; the industry pledged to adopt in-ovo sexing by July 2027.\n- United Kingdom: [The Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 (WATOK)](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/1782/schedule/2/paragraph/44/made). The government's 2025 animal welfare strategy encourages the industry to end chick culling, but has no legal force.\n\nAll other countries are shown as not banned: no law against chick culling is known there. For European Union countries, this is confirmed (as of December 2024) by the report above.","urlMain":"https://animallaweurope.org/wp-content/uploads/Chick-and-Duckling-Killing-UPDATE-December-2024.pdf","dateAccessed":"2026-09-01","datePublished":"2026-09-01","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0"}}]}