Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-13-Speech-1-094"
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"en.20060213.11.1-094"2
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"Madam President, we are all clearly in favour of protecting chickens kept for meat production from the barbarity in the concentration camp-style farms. Many a time in this very Chamber have I denounced the disgraceful industrial farms, in which up to 80 million male chicks have been burnt alive to heat up the farms. I have denounced the way in which the chickens are slaughtered using electric stunning techniques. In fact, the chickens are not completely stunned, with the result that they are plunged into hot water while they are still alive: they are boiled so that they can be plucked.
We therefore all agree that rules are needed. However, when European farmers read the directive, what do they see? They see that the broiler chicken is subjected to two daily medical visits, which are carried out by a veterinary surgeon who must be at least three metres away from the chicken; the area in which the chickens are kept must be illuminated by a non-flickering light with an intensity of 50 lux, 20 lux or 100 lux – no one quite knows – measured at bird eye level; the inside temperature of the farm must not exceed the outside temperature measured in the shade by more than 3˚C; the chicken’s litter must be 5 cm deep; certificates are required for the purposes of keeping chickens and of castrating chicks that are less than ten days’ old; the chickens’ foot pads must be examined, and the stocking density of the chickens must be limited to 28, 30, 35 or 42 kilograms per square metre, although it is not specified whether this means one kilo liveweight or metabolic weight.
Meanwhile, thousands of chickens are being slaughtered in Nigeria, and avian influenza is going to strike down 1.1 billion African chickens. All of this because we did not find the EUR 800 million that would have made it possible to administer to each African chicken the two necessary vaccines, at a cost of 40 cents per dose. I could also try to add a touch of black humour here. Faced with this deluge of precautions that are reserved for white chickens while black children are dying of leprosy, AIDS and tuberculosis, the little African child is going to end up saying: ‘when I grow up, I am not going to be a fireman, I am going to be a broiler chicken in Europe!
In the meantime, our Breton farms, for example, are relocating to Brazil – the leader in poultry farming – where not only are the chickens unprotected, but the children are too. The latter are treated like slaves so that the Brazilian farms can be kept in operation, and that is without mentioning the banana plantations, in which little eight-year-olds fall asleep exhausted on cardboard boxes and come into contact with plant-care products that make them dizzy, all for just USD 2 a day. Well, everyone has his or her own idea of what is most important. Some people choose white chickens whereas I, for my part, choose African children and Asian children. That is where foolishness leads you when you try to act virtuously and, with this directive, we are acting stupidly."@en1
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