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Petition · past parliament · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Introduce legislation to ban the culling of male chicks via maceration and gas

Closed 84 signatures

What the petition asks

Currently, egg and poultry production in the UK is structured so as to have no use for male chicks; they can not lay eggs and do not grow fast enough to justify being kept for meat. Therefore, the chicks are considered expendable and are culled either by maceration or exposure to inert gas.
Despite welfare standards being in place, the current status quo is not sufficiently humane. In the UK, 29 million male chicks in a year are disposed of in the first few minutes of their life. This practice has recently been banned in France and Germany with the advent of new technology which allows for the chick's sex to be determined whilst it is still in its egg. By adopting this method, much life would be saved from being callously wasted and the UK would be in parity with the EU.

Timeline

14 Oct 2022 Petition opened for signatures
14 Apr 2023 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 84
Status Closed
Department Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Opened 14 Oct 2022
Closed 14 Apr 2023

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.