In a landmark decision today, The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig, Germany, has ruled that the killing of male chicks has to end as soon as viable alternatives are available in the market.

The ruling was in response to a lower court’s earlier decision to allow the mass-killing of male chicks by maceration, asphyxiation, and other industry standard methods, despite the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2013 having issued a decree that bans hatcheries from killing chicks. The higher court’s decision now was to permit the practice, but only as long as alternatives for determining sex before hatching are not widely available.