New Video Reveals Baby Chicks Burned, Drowned, Crushed on Major Indian Farms

PETA India Exposes Cruel Practices in the Chicken Business, Urges the Public to Reject Poultry and Eggs

For Immediate Release:
February 21, 2017

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Video from inside several hatcheries and factory farms in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana—obtained by PETA India—reveals that male chicks, millions of whom are deemed worthless to the egg industry, as well as other unwanted chicks, are commonly ground up, drowned, burned, crushed, suffocated, and even fed to fish while still alive. The practices were witnessed at facilities owned by top players in the Indian egg and meat industries, including Srinivasa Hatcheries, which controls 95 percent of the Indian layer market, and Suguna Foods, India’s number one producer of chickens for meat.

The video that PETA India received shows the following:

• Live chicks tossed into grinders
• Chicks drowned in bins of water while trying desperately to keep their heads above water for up to 30 minutes
• Live chicks tossed into fires and burned to death, some crawling out only to be thrown back in
• Chicks crushed or suffocated to death by being stepped on or dumped en masse into large drums or truck beds
• Truckloads of chicks transported to fish farms and tossed into ponds to be eaten alive
• Chicks hatched with deformities such as protruding organs caused by malfunctioning incubators
• Large portions of chicks’ beaks crudely severed with a searing-hot blade

In light of the deeply disturbing revelations in the footage, PETA India is calling on the government to establish and implement standards for painless destruction (euthanasia), to take meaningful action against companies that kill chicks in cruel ways, and to require new in ovo sexing technology, which would allow chicks’ gender to be determined prior to hatching, potentially preventing large-scale killing of male chicks.

“From forcing mutilated hens to live crammed together in tiny cages to grinding up, drowning, and burning chicks alive, the only thing thriving in the egg and meat industries is blatant cruelty to animals,” says Ingrid Newkirk, founder of both PETA and PETA India. “The only way to guarantee that no animal has suffered for our meals is to shun flesh and eggs and go vegan.”

Other companies implicated include Diamond Group, SR Group, Skylark Group—one of the largest poultry producers in India—and others.

For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com.