'End cruel hatch and dispatch!'

Dame Joanna calls for halt to practice that kills 45m males chicks a year

- By Katie Harris Senior Political Correspondent

DAME Joanna Lumley has demanded an end to a “cruel practice” that sees 45 million chicks killed every year in the UK.

The actress joins naturalist Chris Packham and more than 50 politicians in signing an open letter calling for the Government to introduce a ban on male chick culling.

They want a switch to in-ovo sexing technology as part of the upcoming animal welfare strategy.

An estimated 45 million male chicks are killed each year shortly after they are born under a practice known as “hatch and dispatch” because they cannot lay eggs and are not suitable for meat production.

The in-ovo tech allows poultry farms to determine the sex of an embryo before an egg hatches, allowing them to incubate only female eggs.