Footage filmed by the organization “Invisible Animals“ (Anima International) establishes gross and systematic violations of the regulations for animal welfare, biosecurity and food safety. The Food Agency (BAFSA) reacted immediately. We wrote about the topic in FACTI, but we never received a response from the company managing the site. But there is development… Stefan Dimitrov from “Invisible Animals“ speaks to FACTI.
- Mr. Dimitrov, the Food Agency (BAFSA) has taken extreme measures and closed the chicken farm in the village of Kramolin, which we have already talked about. What's next?
- The facility has received an order to revoke its registration from the director of the RFSB - Gabrovo. In practice, the activities of this place, „the farm from hell“ for cage chicken breeding, have been suspended. The BFSA assured us, as the initial sender of the signal and the author of the footage of this horrific place, that it will not resume operations and will not be able to register again until it eliminates all the violations found and the facility is re-approved by a commission. The hundreds of people who were outraged by these shocking footage and sent letters to the BFSA requesting the closure of the facility also assured us of the same.
The violations themselves concern both the building stock and equipment, and not just extremely bad practices. This means that the elimination of all violations will probably involve very large investments, which may prove to be too much for the operator of the facility.
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These are very serious violations of elementary requirements - both for the protection of animals and for zoohygiene and sanitary requirements.
According to the BFSA, this facility does not even have a division into a “white“ and “black“ zone, and in the footage we filmed, we also see decomposing biological material - piles of corpses in an advanced stage of decay, severed heads of chickens, broken eggs, feces. And all this in the hall among live birds. For freely moving hens outside the cages, although it is understandable why the hens want to escape from these cages, it is a problem as for biosecurity, and for the animals themselves, because they have no water and food outside the cages, and apparently they are not collected and returned to the cages for a long time, and perhaps that is why such brutal cannibalism occurs...
You can also see rotting corpses in the cages, rats, even a cat... All of these things increase the risk of spreading a number of infections, including salmonella, Escherichia coli and campylobacter. All of this is separate from the brutal cruelty to which the birds in this facility are subjected - severe cannibalism, hens eating directly from the intestines and meat of open carcasses, birds trapped between the bars, helpless and doomed to a hungry and thirsty death, birds with untreated, open wounds, severed heads and what not.
This is the time to congratulate the employees and management of the BFSA for taking the case so seriously, reacting so quickly with a surprise inspection after our signal, identifying all violations and imposing the strictest and the only appropriate measure - deregistration. The attitude of the Bulgarian Animal Welfare Board in this case is truly commendable and I thank them for their professionalism. It is wonderful when institutions and civil organizations can partner so well. And I believe that any normal person who sees the terrible suffering of these tortured birds would be happy to know that this place is now closed.
- Let's explain what cage farming means…
- This is a method of intensively raising egg-laying hens, in which the birds are confined to about 40 or 80 per cage. In this cage, there are 13 hens per square meter - or about one standard sheet of paper space for each hen. The severely limited space in which she is crammed is physically not enough for her to spread her wings. In this cage, the weaker hens cannot escape if the stress and conditions lead the birds to aggression, respectively, they are helpless and easily become victims of brutal cannibalism. The floor of the cage is made of metal wire, which injures its legs and is a prerequisite for trapping, injuries and more. This is the method of cultivation used for eggs with code 3 - cage cultivation. This is the red stamp on each egg, as well as on the box. There is a mandatory code, which if it starts with 3, means that the eggs are from hens in cages. The other methods of cultivation are: 2 - floor or aviary, 1 - free, and 0 - organic.
- Isn't this with cells an outdated method?
- It originated in the last century, yes it is old. In recent decades there has been a gradual and already very strong trend to move from cell farming to the so-called alternative systems – without cages. This is on the one hand because of consumers who refuse to buy such eggs. On the other hand, it is because of large retail chains that have committed to stop selling eggs from hens in cages by the end of 2025.
At the European Union level, for several years now, more hens have been raised without cages than in cages. Currently, over 60% of hens in the EU are not raised in cages. In Bulgaria, just over 30% are raised without cages, but this percentage is increasing. Especially recently. We have seen many producers recently who understand that cages have no future, and are investing and switching to alternative systems – most often aviary farming.
On June 25, we also held a meeting with the chairman of the Union of Poultry Farmers in Bulgaria - Mr. Ivaylo Galabov, who confirmed this. There is an understanding in the sector that decisive action is needed and a ban on hen cages must be adopted as soon as possible at the EU level. Funding must be released for the transition to alternative systems, all funding that is currently being spent on the futile construction of new cages must be stopped, and reciprocal standards for imports from non-EU countries must be imposed, because this undermines the whole idea. The sooner this happens, the better for the poultry farmers themselves, since the traders are currently pressuring them and have announced that their ethical commitments will soon come into effect and anyone who has not removed their cages by then will simply stop buying eggs from them. The sector itself understands this and it is important that the Ministry of Agriculture and Food engages and stops any chaotic actions in different directions, and instead directs all efforts towards decisive and consistent actions so that things can happen in the best way for the industry itself.
- The Bulgarian Food and Agriculture Organization is also undertaking inspections at other facilities for cell farming of hens. How many such facilities are there in Bulgaria?
- Of the approximately 200 intensive facilities for laying hens in our country, approximately 65 of them are cell farming. The rest are with alternative systems – mainly floor rearing.
Although they are only about 1/3 of the sites, those with cage rearing have nearly 70% of the chickens in our country.
- What will happen to the animals that are in the village of Kramolin…
- Here, unfortunately, things are not so rosy. In the intensive cage site in Kramolin there are two halls - in one the birds are about 70 weeks old, in the other they are about 35 weeks old.
We have information that the owner will most likely sell the birds from the second hall to another industrial chicken site.
However, the BFSA has directed the birds from the first hall to a slaughterhouse at the owner's expense. The truth is that at this age, even if the violations had not been established and the facility deregistered, these birds would already have been sent to the slaughterhouse, simply because about 70 weeks is the so-called exploitation period of hens in such a facility. Their laying capacity is then too low and due to unprofitability, they are "replaced" with new birds.
Therefore, it is not an option to sell them to another facility either - no one would take them. Unfortunately, it is not an option to sell them as domestic hens, for health reasons. It is simply that hens from industrial facilities have a different health program than domestic hens and are vaccinated for a number of diseases that domestic hens are not. Accordingly, they have antibodies, for example, for Newcastle disease, because they are vaccinated, but if they are mixed with domestic chickens and antibodies are detected there, the BFSA will kill all domestic chickens, because in domestic chickens, antibodies are interpreted only as the presence of a disease - because domestic chickens are not vaccinated. And with tens of thousands of chickens, it would be a matter of many yards.
Unfortunately, the only justice for these tortured birds would be that at least in this place animals will never be "raised" in this way again.
- You have also sent other signals to the BFSA, but now they have taken the case seriously, so that there is such a quick reaction?
- The BFSA took the case extremely seriously. We sent the signal on June 11 and on June 12/13, employees from the Central Directorate of the Bulgarian Anti-Fraud Office and the Regional Anti-Fraud Office - Gabrovo conducted a surprise inspection on site. They identified all violations - according to them, one to one with the footage we had filmed - and imposed maximum sanctions. We subsequently had a meeting with them, at which they assured us that the site's activities would be suspended until absolutely all violations were eliminated. The reaction of the Bulgarian Anti-Fraud Office is commendable, their work here is exemplary and I can say with my hand on my heart that I am glad that I can rely on them and their professionalism and seriousness for cases like this.
- What can make state institutions work quickly at all…
- In my opinion, they are aware that with such brutal and serious violations, there can be no two opinions and we cannot say black is white. Such a thing simply cannot be tolerated. In addition to the shocking conditions and violations of humane treatment of animals, we are also talking about an absolute violation of elementary requirements for animal hygiene and biosecurity. We are talking about an increased risk of spreading infections in a place from which our children get their eggs. Including in Sofia, there are eggs from this place on the shelves of large chains. But there is something else. In recent years, Bulgarian society has become increasingly sensitive to the issues of animal protection. This has become a topic that unites people in a way that can rarely be seen elsewhere. A topic about which there is and cannot be any dispute. For me, every normal person would want this place to be closed. And this is of great importance. I guess that's why we saw such strong engagement from people – about 500 people sent individual, personally written letters to the Bulgarian Anti-Fraud Agency on the first day alone after we published the footage, demanding the closure of this site.
- Rarely do state institutions and civil society organizations partner so well. What was different in the case of the village of Kramolin?
- We manage to maintain a very good level of partnership and cooperation with the Bulgarian Anti-Fraud Agency with a high degree of expertise. We meet understanding and a serious attitude, and in turn, of course, we have a good level of preparation. After all, the first footage we filmed in the village of Kramolin is from October 2021, and the last is from May 2025. The evidence we collected and analyzed leaves no room for doubt that there are serious violations at this place, which by May 2025 had even drastically worsened – to the point that we suspect a crime has been committed under a number of articles of the Criminal Code. Therefore, as soon as we were able to analyze and describe everything, we notified the Bulgarian Anti-Fraud Office and the Prosecutor's Office, since we have no right to hide such a thing from the public. We are yet to receive information on whether the Prosecutor's Office will establish that a crime has been committed and will press charges. I am convinced that we will be able to cooperate even more closely with the Bulgarian Anti-Fraud Office in the future, since there are indeed people there who work at a very high level and deserve congratulations.