The hidden camera video taken by the animal rights group shows male chicks being tossed onto a conveyor belt and fed into a grinding machine. Each day at the Hy-line hatchery, 150,000 male chicks are slaughtered in this fashion. The standard practice in the commercial egg industry results in the killing of 200 million male chicks per year. Male chicks are considered useless to egg producers as they cannot lay eggs or be raised profitably for meat. This information is confirmed by United Egg Producers, a trade group for U.S. egg farmers.
“There is, unfortunately, no way to breed eggs that only produce female hens. If someone has a need for 200 million male chicks, we’re happy to provide them to anyone who wants them. But we can find no market, no need. Using a grinder is the most instantaneous way to euthanize chicks,” said the UEP’s spokesman, Mitch Head.
Mercy For Animals contacted 50 of the largest grocery chains, including Walmart, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Safeway, requesting them to include a label on egg cartons that reads, "Warning: Male chicks are ground-up alive by the egg industry." So far none of the stores have complied.
In other parts of the video, chicks are shown dying on the factory floor after slipping through the sorting machine. The footage also chronicles the regular practice of loading female chicks into a debeaker where a portion of their beaks are cut off with a laser.
The egregious disregard of life is deplorable. Watch the video. You can’t un-know something once you know it.
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