The Truth about the ‘Incredible, Edible Egg’
I’m willing to bet that you’ve never sat down to breakfast one morning, looked at your plate of eggs and thought about whether it was a male or female you were eating.
Chances are, you’ll never know and you’ll be happier not knowing. Ignorance is bliss, after all. But have you ever thought about the chicks that come of the eggs we don’t eat, the ones born in hatcheries to be raised and bred to produce more eggs?
Neither had I, until I read an article in the local newspaper about an animal rights group who secretly filmed the goings on at a hatchery in Spencer, Iowa.
Be warned, because what I’m going to tell you is both disgusting and true.
The undercover video that was shot shows LIVE male chicks being sorted and thrown into a grinder machine.
Below is a snippet of the article and again, be warned that it’s rather graphic and disturbing:
The video, shot with a hidden camera and microphone by a Mercy for Animals employee who got a job at the plant, shows a Hy-Line worker sorting through a conveyer belt of chirping chicks, flipping some of them into s chute like a poker dealer flips cards.
These chicks, which the narrator says are males, are then shown being dropped alive into a grinding machine.
In other parts of the video, a chick is dying on the factory floor amid a heap of egg shells after falling through a sorting machine.
Another chick, also still alive, is seen lying on the floor after getting scalded by a wash cycle, according to the video narrator.
Hy-line said the video “appears to show an inappropriate action and violation of our animal welfare policies,” referring to chicks on the factory floor.
But the company also noted that “instantaneous euthanasia” –a reference to killing male chicks by the grinder- is a standard practice supported by the animal veterinary and scientific community.
Can you believe that the animal veterinary and scientific community APPROVES of this? They call it ‘humane’ because it’s the ‘only solution’ that these factories have to get rid of unwanted males. I’m sorry, but there has to be another way.
According to the article, an estimated 200 million chicks are euthanized this way because they cannot lay eggs, or be raised quickly enough for meat.
‘There is, unfortunately, no way to breed eggs that only produce female hens’ says Spokesman Mitch Head. ‘If someone has a need for 200 million male chicks, we’re happy to provide them to anyone who wants them. But we find no market, no need.’
Mercy for Animals has stated that their ultimate goal was to get people to stop eating eggs, and after this, you can be sure that I won’t eat them ever again. I’ve even taken to checking the ingredients labels on my food to make sure I am not consuming any part of an egg (yolks, whites).
M.F.A is also sending letters to big-name stores, trying to have warning labels put on egg cartons that go out to stores like Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Safeway that read: ‘Warning: Male chicks ground up alive by egg industry’.
It’s a little on the graphic side, but how else can we get the word out? I support the suggestion and would willingly sign a petition to have this happen. People need to know.
Also, if you’re like a friend of mine who lives on a farm, but buys her hens/eggs from a hatchery, you may want to heed this warning that was stated in the article:
The Humane Society also says that virtually all egg farms, even those that sell cage-free eggs, get their hens from hatcheries that kill their male chicks.
I believe that the more people who support this cause to save male chicks from a most horrendous death, the more likely the companies will either find a more humane method of euthanization or some way to donate the ‘unwanted’ chicks, which would be the better option.
There are schools and petting zoos that could always use baby chicks for children and Lord knows that someone out there is in need of a male to breed his females or to simply wake him up in the morning old school style. Maybe someone just has a liking for raising birds and would enjoy having them around. There is never a ‘problem’ without a humane solution.
If anyone has an idea or suggestion as to how we can help save these poor chicks from their fate, please, don’t hesitate to send an email to M.F.A or P.E.T.A or any animal rights organization.
The more people who know the truth, the more lives we can spare.
Please, if you call yourself an animal lover, vegetarian/vegan or just an every day, run of the mill activist, visit one of the websites below and do your part to help the cause. Also, feel free to pass this blog entry around or even the Sentinel article I have linked to below.
Help us stop this brutality and save as many male chicks as we can.
Cali B. Diamond
P.E.T.A Website
Mercy for Animals Website
Original Article – published 09/02/09 (*Note - Article not written by Sentinel reporters. Article was written by Melanie S. Welte and Frederic J. Frommer [associated press])
