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L214 Files Complaint Over Chick Grinding at Deux-Sèvres Hatchery as Terrena Opens Probe

The case tests France's 2022 ban that excludes meat-poultry hatcheries from prohibitions on grinding.

Overview

  • L214 released video showing an employee throwing live chicks onto a grinder conveyor and another crushing them with a scraper.
  • The association filed a complaint with the Niort public prosecutor alleging severe abuse and ill-treatment under the Rural Code.
  • Terrena, the cooperative that owns the site in La Boissière-en-Gâtine near Niort, condemned the footage and launched an internal investigation.
  • Boyé Accouvage, which operates the hatchery, reports producing about one million chicks and 220,000 guinea fowl chicks each week for roughly 50 meat-poultry farms across five departments.
  • Terrena says the meat sector does not eliminate chicks by sex and that limited culling concerns malformed chicks under strict regulation.