Several thousand chickens will soon be euthanized due to delays in processing requests from foreign workers and the rise in COVID-19 cases, which weaken the labor shortage affecting the poultry industry.
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Exceldor thus indicated in a press release that it is forced to resort to this practice “for questions of animal welfare and the market”.
“The equipment in our primary processing plants is not designed to handle birds with weights over three kilograms. The treatment of birds that sometimes greatly exceed this weight causes breakages almost daily in our factories, which accentuates the vicious circle of weight delays causing major slowdowns ”, he was specified.
Birds exceeding that weight also no longer meet customer needs, according to Exceldor.
The company stressed that it was facing a significant shortage of personnel at the level of the capture teams, but also at the Saint-Anselme and Saint-Damase factories.
A problem that had already been reported last December, when several members of the industry had asked Ottawa to prioritize the processing of chicken catchers files.
Weakened by the month-long strike held this summer, Exceldor fears another major crisis that would have serious consequences.
The company has also appealed for help to other members of the industry, some of whom have agreed to come and collect their chickens so that they can be processed. However, this solution is not sufficient to avoid the euthanasia of birds as a last resort.