4 ms·

Billions of Day-Old Chicks Are Shredded, Gassed, and Suffocated

4 points by jgwil2 6y ago

eadmund 6y ago
> In recent years, local and international animal-rights groups, particularly in France, Germany, and the U.S., have been ramping up pressure on governments and the egg industry to commit to ending the practice—particularly given technological innovations that allow producers to identify the sex of a developing chick before it hatches. The process is called “in-ovo-sexing,” and such technologies, versions of which are already deployed in some countries, can obviate the need for live chick culling. I am not certain why it is better to crush a chick within its egg than to gas it after it hatches. > that method, which involves creating a tiny hole in the eggshell with a laser … Germany is poised to become the first country to ban the industrial culling of male chicks > maybe for very large producers, the investment is worth it Ah, I see what this is really about: creating a market for someone's in-ovo-sexing technology, with a secondary effect of raising the bar for independent producers. One does have to admire the framing language, too: culling eggs is still culling. Germany isn't considering banning culling, it's just considering mandating that culling be conducted earlier.
- jgwil2 6y ago
  I think it's a safe assumption to make that the chick's suffering in the egg will be less than or equal to the chick's suffering at one day old.
kwdc 6y ago
Animal-rights aside, which are horrible all by themselves, the further implications if you believe in reincarnation are mind bogglingly horrible. Any ethicists/philosophers want to weigh in? I'm thinking some kind of respawn loop where someone gets repeatedly respawned as a chicken and comes up male.
sigmaprimus 6y ago
Just because You hear it on the Internet doesn't mean it's true. Do a bit of research and You may find the first two sentences of this article are conjecture and propaganda. Is there videos of chicks being ground up? Yes but the majority are sexed and then pinned by highly valued people that manually sex chicks more accurately and faster than machines. Male chicks don't fatten up fast enough? The broilers that are currently being produced grow so fast they are processed 6 weeks after hatching, there is no need to sex them. >>>Trigger Warning<<< I raised a straight run of 32 layers and ended up with 18 males. 15 of them graduated to my freezer after two months and two of the other three will be receiving their doctorates this spring as soon as their offspring hatch. Attacking meat products seems to be the flavor of the day. So if You like eating meat, I suggest You find a sustainable way to produce or obtain it before the "woke" succeed in "canceling" it just like everything else.
- jgwil2 6y ago
  *sustainable and _ethical_ way to produce or obtain it. Yeah, that's what the article is about.
  - sigmaprimus 6y ago
    There is nothing ethical about imposing ones personal opinions regarding food on others, especially conflating said opinions with ethics. I see food choice as a fundemental right that should enjoy the same if not more protections than racial, reproductive and religious rights, though they are all interconnected. My body my choice right?
    - jgwil2 6y ago
      You're not arguing in good faith so I shouldn't bother responding to you, but here goes anyway. The ethics of eating animals has nothing to do with "imposing ones [sic] personal opinions regarding food on others," and everything to do with whether your "food choice" deprives other living beings of their right to live free of undue suffering. If you deny that non-human animals have any such rights, then there's really no problem for you I guess. But if you would object to dogfighting, "crush" videos, or other forms of entertainment that inflict suffering on animals, consider why you privilege your enjoyment of meat over those.

4 points by jgwil2 6y ago

> In recent years, local and international animal-rights groups, particularly in France, Germany, and the U.S., have been ramping up pressure on governments and the egg industry to commit to ending the practice—particularly given technological innovations that allow producers to identify the sex of a developing chick before it hatches. The process is called “in-ovo-sexing,” and such technologies, versions of which are already deployed in some countries, can obviate the need for live chick culling. I am not certain why it is better to crush a chick within its egg than to gas it after it hatches. > that method, which involves creating a tiny hole in the eggshell with a laser … Germany is poised to become the first country to ban the industrial culling of male chicks > maybe for very large producers, the investment is worth it Ah, I see what this is really about: creating a market for someone's in-ovo-sexing technology, with a secondary effect of raising the bar for independent producers. One does have to admire the framing language, too: culling eggs is still culling. Germany isn't considering banning culling, it's just considering mandating that culling be conducted earlier.

jgwil2 6y ago
I think it's a safe assumption to make that the chick's suffering in the egg will be less than or equal to the chick's suffering at one day old.

kwdc 6y ago

Animal-rights aside, which are horrible all by themselves, the further implications if you believe in reincarnation are mind bogglingly horrible. Any ethicists/philosophers want to weigh in? I'm thinking some kind of respawn loop where someone gets repeatedly respawned as a chicken and comes up male.

sigmaprimus 6y ago

Just because You hear it on the Internet doesn't mean it's true. Do a bit of research and You may find the first two sentences of this article are conjecture and propaganda. Is there videos of chicks being ground up? Yes but the majority are sexed and then pinned by highly valued people that manually sex chicks more accurately and faster than machines. Male chicks don't fatten up fast enough? The broilers that are currently being produced grow so fast they are processed 6 weeks after hatching, there is no need to sex them. >>>Trigger Warning<<< I raised a straight run of 32 layers and ended up with 18 males. 15 of them graduated to my freezer after two months and two of the other three will be receiving their doctorates this spring as soon as their offspring hatch. Attacking meat products seems to be the flavor of the day. So if You like eating meat, I suggest You find a sustainable way to produce or obtain it before the "woke" succeed in "canceling" it just like everything else.

jgwil2 6y ago
*sustainable and _ethical_ way to produce or obtain it. Yeah, that's what the article is about.
- sigmaprimus 6y ago
  There is nothing ethical about imposing ones personal opinions regarding food on others, especially conflating said opinions with ethics. I see food choice as a fundemental right that should enjoy the same if not more protections than racial, reproductive and religious rights, though they are all interconnected. My body my choice right?
  - jgwil2 6y ago
    You're not arguing in good faith so I shouldn't bother responding to you, but here goes anyway. The ethics of eating animals has nothing to do with "imposing ones [sic] personal opinions regarding food on others," and everything to do with whether your "food choice" deprives other living beings of their right to live free of undue suffering. If you deny that non-human animals have any such rights, then there's really no problem for you I guess. But if you would object to dogfighting, "crush" videos, or other forms of entertainment that inflict suffering on animals, consider why you privilege your enjoyment of meat over those.