Approximately one-quarter to one-third of the upper beak or both upper and lower beaks of a new born chick are routinely chopped off. Poultry producers use beak trimming as part of an overall strategy to reduce feather pecking injuries in groups of poultry due to stress from forced lighting and unnatural feeding and to prevent injuries from fighting due to overcrowding.
These otherwise peaceful birds start attacking and injuring each other in a manner referred to as “cannibalism”.
Beak trimming makes it difficult for the chickens to clean themselves and even to eat. The main methods of beak trimming are infrared and hot blade beak trimming. Hot blade beak trimming uses a heated blade with temperatures ranging from 595-750°C to cut through and cauterise the upper and lower beak tips. The method is usually performed when birds are 7-10 days of age.
This practice is carried out in intensive as well as free range farming. When free-range chicken is labeled as such by the USDA, chickens and egg-laying hens must have continuous access to outdoor space for more than 51 percent of the animals’ lives. There is no guarantee that the birds will actually get to use that outdoor space, or if they do, that they will spend much time there. A free-range chicken could be living in a vast industrial shed with a door to a small enclosed outdoor space (with no definied size requirement) and be expected to share that outdoor area with 20,000 to 30,000 birds living in the same overcrowded housing.
(New Routes Institute)
