With only six months to go before the ban would come into force and just one month until Parliament’s summer recess, we expect the Government to make a decision very soon.

We need to ensure that, if the Government does postpone the ban, a new specific commencement date is set: an indefinite postponement is completely unacceptable. An action plan also needs to be agreed between the Government and the industry for bringing beak-trimming to an end. Without solid agreements, the industry may continue to ask for further delays and millions of hens will continue to suffer unnecessarily.

With your support, 232 MPs signed a House of Commons early day motion on beak-trimming of laying hens during the last Parliament, making it the seventh most successful of all EDMs. But all EDMs came to an end with the dissolution of the last Parliament, so we urgently need your help to collect signatures for the new EDM on beak-trimming of laying hens, EDM 260.

What is an EDM?

EDMs are petitions which can only be signed by MPs. EDMs can:

• Achieve government support (if enough MPs sign up)
• Raise the profile of animal welfare
• Stimulate House of Commons debates
• Encourage MPs to lobby the Government

Further information about beak-trimming

• Beak-trimming involves cutting off around a third of a chick’s beak with a red-hot blade or an infra-red beam. Scientific studies show that this is a serious and painful mutilation which results in acute pain and may also lead to prolonged pain.
• Scientific research and practical experience also show that the correct way to prevent feather-pecking is not to beak-trim birds, but to keep them in good conditions – in particular by providing opportunities for them to forage and perch – and to select for birds that are less prone to feather-pecking.
• If the ban is postponed, a new commencement date must be set and an action plan must be agreed by the Government and the industry for bringing beak-trimming to an end. The industry has already been given a very generous eight years in which to phase out beak-trimming. Without solid agreements and support, the industry may continue to ask for yet more time.
• UK farmers should learn from the experiences of Switzerland and Sweden, where beak-trimming has been banned for many years. If farmers in these countries do not find it necessary to beak-trim, UK farmers should also be able to manage without using this mutilation. Compassion in World Farming recently presented two case studies to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. These highlighted how beak-trimming has been successfully phased out in Austria and how some British farmers are able to raise hens without the use of beak-trimming.

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