Hatcheries kill male chicks on the day they are born because these are considered useless in the industry.
Male chicks are not valuable because they do not lay eggs. They are neither sold as meat because the breeds of chicken that are raised for egg production are different from those that are raised for meat.
"Egg layers are bred to be egg-laying machines who can pump out hundreds of eggs each year," explained David Coman-Hidy, the executive director of farm animal protection group The Humane League. "They're expected to live for approximately one year, typically confined to a tiny cage. On the other hand, broilers are bred to be grotesquely large, growing to a huge size within one month."
The industry standard of culling newborn male chicks, however, is set to end. On Thursday, June 9, United Egg Producers, which represents egg farmers that produce 95 percent of the eggs in the United States, revealed plans to stop killing millions of male chicks by 2020.
The industry group said that the killing will be over as soon as the move will be economically feasible and egg producers find a commercially viable alternative to the practice.
One such option is the use of in-oxo sexing technology that can identify the future chick's gender inside the fertilized egg. With this technology, male chicks will never be born to be ground, gassed or suffocated, methods that hatcheries employ to get rid of unnecessary chicks.
"We are aware that there are a number of international research initiatives underway in this area, and we encourage the development of an alternative with the goal of eliminating the culling of day-old male chicks by 2020 or as soon as it is commercially available and economically feasible," said United Egg Producers President and CEO Chad Gregory.
The Humane League, which worked with United Egg Producers for the commitment, hailed the decision as a historic victory. Nonetheless, the pressure group is not happy with the way hens are treated in hatcheries.
Newly born female chicks may be spared from early death but they would spend months in cages where they are expected to lay eggs, unable to spread their wings, before they are eventually slaughtered.
The barbaric treatment of animals in the food production and poultry industry have already prompted major companies, including Walmart and McDonald's, to consider switching to eggs that were laid by hens not confined in cages. Other food companies and restaurant chains also mull using grass-fed beef and antibiotic-free chicken.
