BERLIN, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The mass killing of male chicks in the German poultry industry is to remain permitted for a transitional period, the federal administrative court in Leipzig ruled in a landmark ruling on Thursday.
The killing of male chicks in Germany would be "only transitionally permissible under animal protection law," the court stated.
The court allowed a continuation of the current practice since a procedure for determining the sex of the unhatched chicken would soon be available. With the introduction of this procedure, male chicks would not need to be killed because they would not hatch at all.
"The current practice will continue for a short period of time," said Martin Beckmann, the hatcheries' attorney, after the verdict was announced. The technique for gender determination in eggs would be "about to break through."
According to the German Ministry of Agriculture, around 45 million male chicks are still being killed every year in Germany. The male chicks are usually shredded immediately after birth because their breeding is uneconomical for hatcheries.
In 2013, the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia sought to stop chick culling but two hatcheries successfully filed a lawsuit against the decree that was issued by former Green-led Ministry of Agriculture.
Germany's Federal Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner (CDU) called on the hatcheries to put a rapid end to chick killing. "It is not ethically justifiable, this practice must be ended as soon as possible," Kloeckner stated.
Kloeckner emphasized that her ministry was funding various procedures and initiatives with more than eight million euros (9 million U.S. dollars) that would make chick killing unnecessary in the future.
The German association for the environment and nature conservation (BUND) criticized the ruling. "After this judgement the chick killing will continue unhindered," said its agrarian expert Katrin Wenz, adding the BUND would demand the policy to "finally start the restructuring of animal keeping."
