Video shows chicks ground up alive at egg hatchery

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-us-egghatcheryinvest,0,2007790.story


An animal rights group publicized a video Tuesday showing unwanted chicks being tossed alive into a grinder at an Iowa plant and accused egg hatcheries of being "perhaps the cruelest industry" in the world.

The undercover video was shot by Chicago-based Mercy for Animals at a hatchery in Spencer, Iowa, over a two-week period in May and June. The video was first obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

"We have to ask ourselves if these were puppies and kittens being dropped into grinders, would we find that acceptable?" asked Nathan Runkle, the group's executive director, at a news conference in Des Moines. "I don't think that most people would."

The group said that tossing male chicks, which have little value because they can't lay eggs or be raised quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat, into grinders is common industry practice. United Egg Producers, a trade group for U.S. egg farmers, confirmed that.
-snip-
--------------------------

"the cruelest industry"

they are cruel to their workers too - have been for decades.

chickens are not as stupid as many people think.

and they feel pain, same as fish feel pain and are smarter then people think.

:puke:

are simply thinking about their families.

And that is the main problem with our entire society - everyone is so insecure that no one has the wherewithal to stand on their ethics.

By the way, if we object to these practices, we must certainly begin with a boycott of the final product.

The chick that grow up to be edible chickens die a lot slower. The chicks that fall through the cracks or go through the washer die much worse too.


I work/ed in or around animal labs where some animals were gassed and some were guillotined. I think the guillotined rats suffered a little less than the gassed rats. Animals just don't like to put to sleep -- they resist it and struggle.