Group: Chicks Ground Up Alive at Hatchery
An undercover video shot by an animal rights group at an Iowa egg hatchery shows workers discarding unwanted chicks by sending them alive into a grinder, and other chicks falling through a sorting machine to die on the factory floor.
Chicago-based Mercy for Animals said it shot the video at Hy-Line North America's hatchery in Spencer, Iowa, over a two-week period in May and June. The video was obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
Hy-Line said in a statement it has started an investigation "of the entire situation," adding that it would have helped their investigation "had we been aware of the potential violation immediately after it occurred."
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 conveyor belt of chirping chicks, flipping some of them into a chute like a poker dealer flips cards.
These chicks, which a narrator says are males, are then shown being dropped alive into a grinding machine.
In other parts of the video, a chick is shown 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 of male chicks by the grinder - is a standard practice supported by the animal veterinary and scientific community.
According to Mercy for Animals, male chicks are of no use to the industry because they can't lay eggs and don't grow large or quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat. That results in the killing of 200 million male chicks a year.
The United Egg Producers, a trade group for U.S. egg farmers, confirmed that figure and the practice behind it.
"There is, unfortunately, no way to breed eggs that only produce female hens," said the group's 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 can find no market, no need."
Using a grinder, Head said, "is the most instantaneous way to euthanize chicks."
There is no federal law that ensures the humane euthanasia of animals on farms or hatcheries, according to Jonathan Lovvorn, vice president and chief counsel of the Humane Society of the United States.
Hy-Line says on its Web site that its Iowa facility produces 33.4 million chicks. Based on that figure, Mercy for Animals estimates a similar number of male chicks are killed at the facility each year. Hy-Line did not comment on that estimate.
Mercy for Animals says it will call on the nation's 50 largest grocery chains to include labels on their eggs that say, "Warning: Male chicks are ground-up alive by the egg industry."
Head called that proposal "almost a joke," saying the group had no credible authority, and had questionable motives. "This is a group which espouses no egg consumption by anyone - so that is clearly their motive." The video does in fact end with a call for people to adopt a vegan diet, which eliminates all animal products - meat, eggs or dairy.
Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals, said most people would be shocked to learn that 200 million chicks are killed a year.
"Is this justifiable just for cheap eggs?" he said.
As to more humane alternatives to disposing of male chicks, Runkle said the whole system is inherently flawed.
"The entire industrial hatchery system subjects these birds to stress, fear and pain from the first day," he said.
-
On the Web:
Mercy for Animals video: www.mercyforanimals.org/hatchery
Hy-Line International: www.hyline.com
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Chicago-based Mercy for Animals said it shot the video at Hy-Line North America's hatchery in Spencer, Iowa, over a two-week period in May and June. The video was obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
Hy-Line said in a statement it has started an investigation "of the entire situation," adding that it would have helped their investigation "had we been aware of the potential violation immediately after it occurred."
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 conveyor belt of chirping chicks, flipping some of them into a chute like a poker dealer flips cards.
These chicks, which a narrator says are males, are then shown being dropped alive into a grinding machine.
In other parts of the video, a chick is shown 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 of male chicks by the grinder - is a standard practice supported by the animal veterinary and scientific community.
According to Mercy for Animals, male chicks are of no use to the industry because they can't lay eggs and don't grow large or quickly enough to be raised profitably for meat. That results in the killing of 200 million male chicks a year.
The United Egg Producers, a trade group for U.S. egg farmers, confirmed that figure and the practice behind it.
"There is, unfortunately, no way to breed eggs that only produce female hens," said the group's 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 can find no market, no need."
Using a grinder, Head said, "is the most instantaneous way to euthanize chicks."
There is no federal law that ensures the humane euthanasia of animals on farms or hatcheries, according to Jonathan Lovvorn, vice president and chief counsel of the Humane Society of the United States.
Hy-Line says on its Web site that its Iowa facility produces 33.4 million chicks. Based on that figure, Mercy for Animals estimates a similar number of male chicks are killed at the facility each year. Hy-Line did not comment on that estimate.
Mercy for Animals says it will call on the nation's 50 largest grocery chains to include labels on their eggs that say, "Warning: Male chicks are ground-up alive by the egg industry."
Head called that proposal "almost a joke," saying the group had no credible authority, and had questionable motives. "This is a group which espouses no egg consumption by anyone - so that is clearly their motive." The video does in fact end with a call for people to adopt a vegan diet, which eliminates all animal products - meat, eggs or dairy.
Nathan Runkle, executive director of Mercy for Animals, said most people would be shocked to learn that 200 million chicks are killed a year.
"Is this justifiable just for cheap eggs?" he said.
As to more humane alternatives to disposing of male chicks, Runkle said the whole system is inherently flawed.
"The entire industrial hatchery system subjects these birds to stress, fear and pain from the first day," he said.
-
On the Web:
Mercy for Animals video: www.mercyforanimals.org/hatchery
Hy-Line International: www.hyline.com
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Firsthand look at MTA mega-digs 11 Photos
- Disruptive man on United jet taken off flight
- 94-year-old Minn. man linked to Nazi atrocities
- Feds digging in Mich. field for Jimmy Hoffa's remains
- Church shooting in Ogden, Utah not a random act of violence Play Video
- Former hitman testifies at "Whitey" Bulger trial
- Day care worker accused of drugging snacks for nap-time
- 5 teens killed in fiery Orange County car crash
I only buy free range eggs now and as often as possible, I purchase them directly from small, local farms. It doesn't have to be this way but we as the consumer vote every time we buy, simple as that. Our strongest voice is in our wallet.
toldyouso said: "If you eat a certain animal, you are not going to become attached to it, care about it or for it except to do what is necessary to keep the food from being adversely affected."
You can only speak for yourself. Some people do care, and they stop eating meat.
---------------
toldyouso said: "The other thing that makes people disregard vegans is that they claim to love living things. Plants are living-they don't stop killing or eating them."
Plants are not conscious living beings. Humans and other animals have self awareness, thus personal interests. That's the difference. Beyond that, pain is of no use to a plant, so I don't think vegetables and fruits have evolved to feel pain.
---------------
toldyouso: "Protein is necessary for life, carbs are not (what veggies primarily consist of) there is no complete vegetable protein."
Wrong. Plants have levels of protein that are comparable to meat. The following chart compares protein in different plants and animals: http://www.soystache.com/plant.htm#Source
Carnivores may not need carbs, but we do. Human anatomy is more similar to herbivores than to either omnivores or carnivores. Scroll down for a chart that compares the three:
http://www.vegsource.com/veg_faq/comparative.htm
As to more humane alternatives to disposing of male chicks, Runkle said the whole system is inherently flawed.
"The entire industrial hatchery system subjects these birds to stress, fear and pain from the first day," he said.
-
What vegans fail to comprehend or understand is that people (including them) compartmentalize things. If you eat a certain animal, you are not going to become attached to it, care about it or for it except to do what is necessary to keep the food from being adversely affected.
People love dogs and cats--if they ate them in the US, they would be viewed differently as would horses. You just don't see people caring what or how pigs, sheep, chickens, turkeys or cattle are treated, because ultimately, to get on our plates they have to die--if the end result is death anyway--it is almost hypocrisy to talk about a 'humane' way to kill someone. Do we give murderers less time, if they shoot a person in the temple as opposed to hacking them with an ax? Isn't the shooting death less painful and quicker? Or is dead--just dead so it is all wrong?
The other thing that makes people disregard vegans is that they claim to love living things. Plants are living-they don't stop killing or eating them. Do plants feel pain? Just because we don't hear them or don't quantify that response, does it make their death less real? but that death is okay? Because vegans have to eat something?
Then there is plastic. Plastic comes from petroleum, as do most faux products--petroleum spills and pollution kill many animals by choking them to death and burning the tissue in their eyes and lungs. Are vegans going barefoot? Do vegans drive cars, or live in homes with synthetic substances? Where do they think this fake stuff comes from and what it is made of? But that is okay because they need it right?
The point is, to exist, mankind kills living things. In fact, to exist, all animals kill living things. Is a salmon and its life to be less respected than a chicken? Or a dog? or a person? Does a tree (without which all life as we know it would be destroyed) earn less respect than a cow? or a dog? or a baby? Trees breathe in Carbon dioxide and replace it with Oxygen, the stuff we need--they also uptake methane and therefore decrease how much of that dangerous stuff in in the atmosphere (though it is refined and produced again when herbivores eat grass and other green stuff)
something dies, so that other things may live--now, we have people with so much time on their hands that they want things to either die a certain way or not be killed at all--though they themselves participate in the killing if they but admitted it.
I eat meat, I like meat. and seafood and veggies. Protein is necessary for life, carbs are not (what veggies primarily consist of) there is no complete vegetable protein--but even if there were, I like meat, i like to fry it, chew it, the juices from it--I am not sentimental. I'm glad I'm not a goat, cow, pig, sheep, salmon, crab, shrimp or chicken. they should give me some of those chickens-I could grow them and kill them and yes--eat them and dead is dead--whether I wring their necks or just chop their heads off, it is going to hurt and they are going to get battered and fried or baked.
I think the tragedy of that place is not the chickens in the grinders (their destiny was always to die) it is that so much potential food was wasted. They could have given them to organic farmers and let them grow them for a few--then eat them...They are called capons when they die as veritable teens and a capon with stuffing is yummy indeed.
1) You think moral relativism is totally acceptable. Certain animals we see as food, so its acceptable to disregard their emotions and desire for well-being. You might have fit in well in 1940s Germany.
2) You have limited understanding of the legal system and how criminal prosecutions work
3) You're unable to distinguish between sentient and non-sentient life
4) You think x level of environmental destruction further justifies a level of x^10, just because.
5) You have equated human desire with biological necessity
6) You don't know much about nutrition
7) Worst of all: You value carnal pleasure over morality and limiting the suffering of others.
Sorry, but you are clearly swimming in a pool of denial that vegans have already found their way out of. One or two of your points may apply to a minority of people who live in areas where vegetables cannot be sustainibly grown; all of your other arguments however are permutations of long-debunked quasi-facts against vegan logic.
I hope you can find a better way of living, for the health of your mind, body, and spirit, and the well-being of our future generations.
br,
Hari
Nationally ranked Ironman triathlete and vegan
"Is this justifiable just for cheap eggs?" he said.
Why grind them up? Why not sell or give them away to some 3rd world country in need of food? Heck, give them to homesteader farmers all over the US or to people in Appalachia. Most of them would love some free chicken.
LIAR. Had they been aware of the 'violation' when it occurred the video would have been confiscated, the employee fired if not beat up and they would have denied everything. If this is not the norm show us the SOP and proof of what is really done with male baby chicks...[crickets]
[crickets] [more crickets]
This is par for the course. It will not deter people from eating chicken though--people cannot afford to get sentimental or too cozy with the stuff they eat, and the world is increasing in meat eaters, not decreasing.