Male Chicks Were Ground Up Alive Because You Bought That Carton of Eggs

Did you know that it’s standard practice to kill all male chicks in the egg industry? Workers throw millions of chirping chicks into grinders because the industry considers males worthless since they don’t produce eggs. When you buy a carton of eggs, you’re supporting an industry that exploits more than 305 million hens and kills all male chicks.

These inquisitive and social animals aren’t raised or nurtured by their loving parents. They don’t roam free and take dust baths in the sunshine. They never breathe fresh air. They hatch in a hard plastic incubator alongside dozens of other chicks who have never known the sound of their mother’s voice. From the moment they hatch, their short lives are filled with chaos, fear, and pain.

The egg industry views these sensitive animals as products rather than individuals and treats them as such. Shortly after they hatch, workers crudely sort out the unwanted males from the females. The male chicks are killed, likely on the same day they hatched.

These unwanted males are most commonly killed using a macerator. Workers roughly grab the chicks and toss them onto conveyor belts. These hours-old babies then fall down a chute—where they’re ground up while still alive.

In some countries, workers toss chicks into large trash cans to suffocate. The birds are crushed by the weight of hundreds of other unwanted chicks. Some hatcheries drown chicks in large buckets of water. No matter the country, no matter the method, the result is the same: Millions of sentient beings die in the egg industry.

You can spare lives by going vegan today.