We Raised Our Voices Against Chick Killing
Each year, GAIA organizes a summer tour across Belgium to raise awareness about animal cruelty. Our summer campaign focuses on the daily killing of 65,000 chicks in Belgium, either through gas or being crushed alive. These cruel practices are rarely discussed, which is why we have come up with a unique initiative to draw attention to this issue.
We are thrilled to announce that GAIA has launched Belgium’s very first audio petition, where everyone was invited to come and crow like a rooster during the summer tour.
In the egg industry, male chicks are deemed useless because they cannot lay eggs. As a result, they are either gassed or crushed alive just hours after their birth. Fortunately, there is a straightforward solution to this cruelty: in-ovo sexing. This technology allows us to determine the sex of chicks while they are still in the egg, well before they hatch. Ann De Greef, GAIA’s director, states, “Supermarkets continue to sell eggs from hens whose chicks are cruelly killed immediately after birth. There are efficient technologies available to prevent this slaughter, so it is high time for the chains to take responsibility and meet the wishes of the majority of Belgian consumers.”
During the summer tour, GAIA visited twelve major cities across Belgium with their Egg Mobile—a mobile studio designed for people to sign the audio petition by crowing like a rooster. Afterward, participants could share their own crowing on social media through a personalised video, encouraging friends and family to sign the petition as well. Signing the audio petition could not only be done at the Egg Mobile but also online at www.kraaiernaar.be. With these auditory signatures, GAIA hopes to pressure policymakers and supermarkets to put an end to the unnecessary killing of chicks.