Italy is among the First five countries of the European Union for industrial plants with tens of thousands of animals piled up in restricted spaces. Before us, only Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands.
This is what emerges from the new data collected by the international collective of journalists Agtivist who identified and mapped for the first time industrial farms throughout Europe, in particular the so -called “Mega Farms”, huge factories with a high concentration of animals.
The data show that in the EU there are 10,862 bodies of poultry with at least 40 thousand animals each (both chickens of meat and ovaiole hens) and 8,854 pigs with at least 2,000 garments each (of which 2,547 reproduction plants with scrofera often confined in cage).
The analyzes
According to data, in the last ten years in Europe 2,746 new large industrial farms have been built, with the highest growth rate in Spain, where projects have been started in the last decade for 1,385 new intensive plants. Over the past ten years, 5,314 permits have been granted for these maxi farms, to the detriment of those of small and medium -sized.
Between 2005 and 2020, what is significant is that the total agricultural surface has remained almost unchanged, thus showing a process of concentration in large structures, with the consequent environmental impact, dejections, smells and soil management that all this entails, in addition to the impact on animals. In the same period, the number of maxi-hallies grew by 56%, with 8% of the most productive companies that incorporate 63% of animals raised in the EU. The income disparities between small farms and industrial ones have increased up to sixty times.
The countries that make worse
Italy is among the first five countries for intensive farms of pigs and combined chickens (2,146 in all) and is always among the first five countries also for maxi pigs and chickens individually.
France has the most intensive farms of chickens (2,342 farms); While Spain has the largest number of intensive pigs of pigs (2,580 breeds of fattens and 821 reproduction pig farms). It is also the country where, over the last decade, the greatest number of new farms have arisen.
Obviously, even if you say it, inhuman is the condition of chickens within these plants, in overcrowded environments, with inadequate ventilation, unhealthy hygienic conditions and no access to the outdoor space or natural light.
Returning to Italy, Agivist’s investigations in Italy, supported by being animals, have put the real conditions of animals bare. Just to name a few:
In Spain, the investigation highlighted the very high density of the pigs in industrial farms, kept in overcrowding conditions and unhealthy due to wounded wounds and diseases. The sows are locked in metal cages of just two square meters, preventing their natural movement and causing serious physical repercussions.
Animal Law Italia, Animal Equality, Ciwf Italia, Being Animals and Lav – Active Members of Eurogroup for Animals, which represents more than one hundred organizations for the protection of animals in the EU – ask for the gradual elimination of all cages for all species, the introduction of minimum space requirements, the ban on rapid growth breeds, a drastic reduction in the breeding density and the legal obligation to provide enrichments environmental and access to external areas.
These improvements for animals should be introduced in the context of the revision of the European standards for the welfare of animals in farms, a legislation dating back to 20 years ago, inadequate and no longer in line with the latest scientific evidence and whose review had been promised by the European Commission over 600 days ago, they conclude.
