You can’t eat eggs without participating in the cruel practice of grinding male chicks alive. This is the message in a new Mercy For Animals Campaign (MFA) depicting the behind the scenes violence at poultry hatchery Hy-Line International in Spencer, Iowa. The animal rights organization went undercover to obtain video footage of the process of grinding up unwanted male chicks alive.
“For the nearly 150,000 male chicks who hatch every 24 hours at this Hy-Line facility, their lives begin and end the same day,” explains MFA. “Grabbed by their fragile wings by workers known as sexers, who separate males from females, these young animals are thrown into chutes. They are destined to die because they cannot produce eggs and do not grow large or fast enough to be raised profitably for meat.”
The chicks are torn into pieces by a high-pressure macerator, in a process known as instantaneous euthanasia in the industry.
Over 30 million male chicks meet their fate this way each year at the Hy-Line International facility. Mercy for Animals estimates 200 million male chicks are killed annually in the USA, a figure confirmed by the United Egg Producers.
Visit: http://www.mercyforanimals.org/hatchery/
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written by John , June 06, 2011