Djurens Rätt reports Swedish factory farm to the police for animal cruelty

The background to Djurens Rätt's police report is that the organization received a large amount of images and film clips that can be linked to a chicken factory farm in Sweden. The material comes from an anonymous source and shows everything from overcrowding and dirty animals, to dead chickens being trampled by the living. The facility has conventional chicken breeding with fast-growing chickens and supplies the brand Kronfågel.

– I knew before that it was bad in the chicken factory farms, but these pictures are terrible. The video of the fast-growing chicken unable to move, being trampled by others, is etched in my memory. There is no time to lose, the judicial system must act against animal factory farms like these, says Camilla Bergvall, President of Djurens Rätt.

In July, an amendment to the law on animal cruelty entered into force, which clarifies that those who cause animal suffering to a greater degree can be prosecuted for aggravated animal cruelty. That’s what Djurens Rätt has focused on in the report, but also goes into all violations of the Animal Welfare Act that may be relevant in this case.

– Djurens Rätt will continue to remind legislators, law enforcement and consumers that animals suffer in animal factories. It is beyond all criticism that sentient individuals are treated in this way in a country that claims to have the world's best animal welfare, continues Camilla Bergvall.

Djurens Rätt has also investigated the inspection reports from the County Administrative Board for animal welfare inspections at the facility over the past ten years. This shows that the County Administrative Board has only carried out three normal animal welfare inspections on site since 2012. The most recent inspection was pre-notified and carried out in June 2022 without any comment, but the County Administrative Board did not check whether sick or injured animals were given the necessary care. The animal welfare inspections before that, which were carried out five and ten years ago, showed deficiencies in the risk of injury, serious deficiencies in the degree of occupancy (crowding) and deficiencies in the stable climate.

The assessment is that a crime has been committed according to the following provisions:

• Chapter 16 Section 13 of the Swedish Criminal Code, the trader has, through gross negligence, neglected a large number of chickens and thereby caused them suffering in the facility.
• Chapter 2 Section 4 of the Swedish Animal Welfare Act (SAWA), the trader has failed to supervise sick and injured chickens.
• Chapter 2 Section 6(2) SAWA, the trader has failed to keep the storage area clean to the extent that chickens have been corroded by manure.
• Chapter 4 Section 1 SAWA, the trader has failed to provide sick and injured chickens with care or end their suffering.