Causecast

by CLAIRE DALTON, Contributing Writer

Secret footage of baby chicks being ground up alive at an Iowa egg hatchery was released on August 31st by Mercy for Animals, a Chicago-based animal welfare group dedicated to ending the exploitation and abuse of animals. The hatchery in the video, Hy-Line International in Spencer, Iowa, is the world’s largest egg-laying breed hatchery, where hundreds of thousands of chicks are born each day. However, because the male chicks will not produce eggs and cannot grow large or fast enough to be raised for meat, some 150,000 male chicks are discarded and euthanized each day.

Hatchery workers called "sexers" stand at the conveyor belts as the chicks pass by, plucking out the male chicks and tossing them down a chute that will take them to the grinder. A standard practice in the industry, these chicks are killed on the very same day they’re born, a process called "instantaneous euthanasia," which has been supported by the animal veterinary and scientific community. The female chicks do not pass through without pain either; they are suspended by their heads as a laser removes a portion of their beak, rich with nerve endings. Further, the impersonal, fast-paced machinery brings with it a margin for error, as seen in the video below when chicks fall off the conveyors or accidentally pass through the scalding rinse cycle. (Warning: This video is graphic and may be disturbing for some.)

Hy-Line has responded to the video, saying that the chicks who are found on the floor of the hatchery are not in line with their animal welfare practices and intend to follow-up.

Mercy for Animals calls for viewers to consider a vegan diet as a means to reduce demand on the egg industry. Interested? Learn more about how to eat vegan at Vegan Action, or get started a little bit slower by considering the benefits of a vegetarian diet and order a free Vegetarian Starter Kit from Mercy for Animals.

There are also a number of animal welfare and activist groups for which you can volunteer and show your support, such as Farm Sanctuary and Peta 2, and as always, get the word out about these inhumane practices through your blog, with friends and family, or straight to your local hatchery.

Join the Humane Society in their campaign to lobby for legislation that will enforce more humane practices in poultry factory farms. The Humane Society’s Petition for Poultry aims to ensure all birds are killed humanely. Over 200 million male chicks are ground up alive in the industry each year; what will you do to help end this cruelty?

Photo by Kevin Cortopassi, flickr.