From shell to hell


The Birth: life or death is defined by gender

The life of the little ducklings begins in a hatching factory.
At the conveyor belt they are separated  by gender.
The female ducklings are not profitable because their liver growth is not as fast and effective as the male ducklings, therefore they are immediately gassed. The males face a short life in forced feeding.

The start of the nightmare: webbed feet on iron grids

The ducks, who should normally spend most of their lifetime in ponds, lakes and streams, will never be able to fulfil their basic needs.
On the contrary: Within 7-9 weeks hell starts for them. 2 weeks of forced-feeding is on their schedule now. From now on they have no access to either soil or water and don’t have enough space to even turn around.

1,500 young ducks are forced into battery cages. All they know is fear, stress, and pain. Depending on the factory's system they share a cage with one or two others, or are kept in total isolation. The cages are about   as big as their body and provide no escape. Theirs is a life spent standing on an iron grid; the animals'   sensitive webbed feet are soon traumatised and covered with painful ulcers. Broken wings are common because of their vain attempts to escape.
Each movement causes pain now.

The torture of force feeding

Twice a day the animals are stuffed whereby a tube is forced through their oesophagus. In two seconds up to 800g of food are crammed into their stomach. The pneumatic tube often causes bad injuries. Some animals die of suffocation when the tube is inserted in their trachea by mistake.

The animals are fed with a mixture of high energy food, corn and polenta. Salt is added to encourage the animals to drink a lot of water. Feeding causes fear and agony. If the liver fails and becomes ill, the goal seems to be achieved.

Antibiotics guaranteed

At the beginning of this period the animals' bodies react with fevers, which is subsequently treated with antibiotics. A Hungarian producer told us they were using amoxicillin; otherwise the animals would die from this fever.

                                              

2 weeks of luxurious animal torture

During the 2 weeks of force-feeding the animals become ill. The death rate in this period is 20 times higher than conventional duck meat production factories (source: EC commission). They die of heart attacks, internal bleeding or asphyxia. Also they suffer from injuries, getting cut on their beaks, wings and faces. Most of them see the world through pus covered, infected eyes, caused by the ammonia (NH3) gases that are emitted by the liquid manure under their cages.

At the end of this life span the halls are dead silent. The animals can't move and can hardly breathe – because of their pathologically enlarged liver . They desperately try to get some oxygen by shallow breathing through their open beaks. Each movement or pressure can cause death now.

Whoever survives is transported to the slaughterhouse

After 2 weeks forced feeding the liver is 10 times its normal size. The ill animals are transported to the slaughterhouse. Workers carry them into a transporter. Hundreds of animals are piled on top of each other; a lot of them will not survive the transport from stress, suffocation, or organ failure. From what a duck-breeder told us, 70% die during the transport.

In the slaughterhouse: the animals die one by one. Mistakes in stupefaction are common. There is no time for checking up on everything…the most important things are the huge livers. At this moment in time each liver weighs about 900g. The weight of a normal duck liver is about 70g. From here the livers are exported worldwide. The meat from the haggard cadavers is also shipped to the whole world from here.