Not bestial conditions

The Ministry of Agriculture of Germany has taken the initiative to introduce a tax on “animal welfare”. For the sake of their humane maintenance on farms, it is proposed to establish duties on meat and dairy products, the portal of economic news reports.

The department calculated that the consumer premiums will cost only 35.2 euros per year (23.8 euros for meat, 4.72 euros for eggs and 6.5 euros for milk and dairy products). But farmers will receive subsidies that will allow them to expand cow stalls or buy more spacious cages for laying hens. Earlier, the Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner prepared another bill to “humanize animal husbandry”. It forbids farmers from killing male chicks after they hatch from the eggs. Every year, 45 million chicks are killed in Germany that are useless for the industry. This is a common practice in other EU countries as well. The department wants to introduce laser technologies that allow the sex of embryos to be determined while still in the incubator. The Germans believe that it is much more humane not to allow small cockerels to be born than to kill newborns. True, in this case, the cost of each egg will increase by two cents.