The scandal at Kronfågel - chickens are boiled alive
Aftonbladet, Sweden's largest newspaper, revealed last week how chickens have, for a long time, been boiled alive at Kronfågel's slaughterhouse, despite promises that it would cease. According to the County Administrative Board of Södermanland, the shortcomings are serious and can lead to severe suffering for the animals.
At Kronfågel's facility outside Katrineholm, just over one million chickens are slaughtered every week. This means that almost half of all animals in Sweden are slaughtered each year in the same factory farming.
It is no longer possible to talk about individual mistakes when animals are handled as goods on an assembly line - suffering is routine in animal factories. It's time to dismantle an unsustainable food system.
- Camilla Bergvall, president, Project 1882
According to Aftonbladet, both faeces and stomach contents, half a centimeter in size or larger, have also been discovered on more than every third controlled chicken at the slaughterhouse.
They are in too much of a hurry. It's going too fast. They have not built the facility or adapted the crew for this speed. It's to make money of course.
- Signar Mäkitalo, infection control doctor at Region Sörmland
Several large municipalities stop purchased from Kronfågel
The reaction from the public has been strong on social media, and even municipalities have reacted quickly and have taken stand for the chickens. First out was the city of Gothenburg, which on Tuesday 25 May announced that they would stop buying chicken meat from Kronfågel. Two days later, on Thursday, the city of Malmö and Uppsala municipality also announced that they would stop purchases from Kronfågel after speaking to Project 1882. On Friday 28 May Stockholm, the capital of Sweden also announced that they would stop purchases from Kronfågel. According to Aftonbladet, a total of 90 municipalities have stopped purchasing from Kronfågel.
