BEIRUT: Highlighting the importance of animal welfare is among the reasons behind the Beirut governor’s recent decision to forbid the sale of colored baby chicks within the city, Ziad Chebib said Friday.
Speaking of concerns over the coloring, sale and treatment of the baby chicks, Chebib told The Daily Star that banning sales can “help prevent these welfare concerns, prevent avoidable disease risks and help teach children the importance of animal welfare.” According to the governor’s official announcement, the decision was made as “an effort to protect children and animals alike.”
This comes as welcome news to Animals Lebanon Executive Director Jason Meir, long an advocate for ending the trade of colored chicks.
“I appreciate his phrasing of the decision in this way,” Mier said, adding that the governor’s new decision helps “everyone understand how [animal welfare] relates directly to them.”
Artificially dyed baby chicks are given as a novelty gift for children to mark the Easter holiday.
While the tradition is popular in Lebanon, it did not originate in the country, and is practiced elsewhere in the world.
In recent years animal rights activists have increasingly brought attention to the inherent cruelty in the coloring and sales of the chicks.
The tiny, downy feathered chicks are dyed shades of bright pink, green, and blue, and sold for LL1,000 to LL2,000, often along Lebanon’s roadways, but their appeal wears off quickly as the colored feathers fall out and they grow up.
A recent news report by Al-Jadeed TV depicted the dying process in graphic detail. On the video, a worker dumps a group of baby chicks into a bucket and tosses them around in dye until they are coated. In the process, the rough handling breaks the chicks’ fragile legs and wings.
Meir said that some of the dyes used “are vegetable-based food coloring and would be relatively safe, other dies are toxic, with oils and synthetic [ingredients]. It’s not something you would want to be coated in.”
Mier explained that male baby chicks are primarily used for this practice as they are “without much value to farms.”
“Females are more desirable for [producing] eggs,” he added.
After being dyed, the chicks are sold outdoors, with no protection from the elements, and without adequate food and water.
For this reason Mier stressed the importance of selling the animals within a licensed facility.
“You cannot guarantee the welfare of animals when you have them sitting on the side of the road, the sun beating down. There is no food, no water. Throughout the day, some of the animals just die, if they don’t die, they become severely dehydrated.”
Those who sell the chicks don’t provide information to customers on how to care for them, nor do they offer proper chicken food.
“You shouldn’t be able to buy an animal without, at the same time, being able to get the things you need to take care of the animal,” Mier said. “Sometimes people buy pigeon food, others just give them bread and scraps.”
In general, the chicks are kept indoors while they are still small, but eventually end up locked on balconies, rooftops, or ultimately abandoned in parking lots once grown.
Mier said that Animals Lebanon anticipates requests to rescue the animals after the Easter holiday has ended, and once they have grown into crowing roosters, though by that time it’s often too late.
“Lots of them don’t survive,” he said, if you put them on the balcony and don’t give them water they end up dying within two days.” He added that one of the biggest problems is finding a home for the chickens, once they have been rescued.
Mier said that sustainably improving animal treatment in Lebanon is a gradual process, and the central goal of the new National Animal Protection and Welfare Law. Animals Lebanon helped draft this legislation in cooperation with the Agriculture Ministry.
The law was approved by the Cabinet on Feb. 4, and is now in the process of being moved to Parliament for enactment, pending a final vote.
“We are hoping that, if it is possible to pass laws this year, our law will pass,” Mier said.
Their law aims to improve Lebanon’s compliance with international conventions on animal welfare. It seeks to regulate animal care and handling among establishments, and individual pet owners, that keep animals.
It also calls for safe practices and licensing among the nation’s pet stores and prohibits the sale of animals on the street. Another priority is the immediate end to behavior that constitutes animal cruelty.
The law will come into force over a period of three years, which is ideal, according to Mier. “So often laws fail because the change is too quick,” he said, adding that they can lead to “a backlash of the public.”
