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Hatchery throws live chicks out as garbage
#1
This is shocking even for a hatchery. A Mercy For Animals group approached a hatchery dumpster one night and found it full of live chicks. Many were actually tied up in garbage bags and left to suffocate.
https://www.thedodo.com/baby-chicks-garb...17368.html

These are little new born chicks, the little yellow fluff balls that we use to symbolize cuteness and innocence and rebirth and everything sweet and beautiful.
There is nothing cute about them being thrown alive into a dumpster.Angry

I really wonder about the people who do these things. At Easter time when there are fuzzy chick pictures everywhere, do they announce to friends and family "I throw hundreds of chicks like that into a dumpster every year to die horribly".
I bet that makes for interesting dinner discussions.
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Catherine

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#2
Humans are strange creatures. They are able to separate their thinking:
one one side, to go all sentimental about baby chicks on Easter cards and cakes - "Ah, aren't they cute?!";
on the other side, deliberately to turn a blind eye to the reality of the poultry industry and buy eggs from a supermarket.

Sadly, even buying "free-range" eggs does not guarantee that the farm will deal compassionately with the unwanted male chicks.

The article is a good one. It is factually informative. This parts hits home: "Not a single federal law currently provides any protection to these birds at the hatchery, on the factory farm or during slaughter."

I usually avoid reading the comments below, as they are often argumentative and abusive, but this comment by a former worker showed just how common this practice is: "I worked in a hatchery many years ago, and have seen this happen. I had to quit because I couldn't handle the mortality rate of it all. Almost everyday I went home and cried. It was baby chicks and baby turkeys. Once the machines were all cleaned, if a batch of chicks got missed, the guys would tie them up in a garbage back and put them in the dumpster. I alerted the humane society and hopefully they are more closely monitored. It's heartbreaking!!"

The USA, sadly, is way behind Europe in terms of legislation to protect chickens - although even here, cruelty does still happen daily on a massive scale. No federal laws at all in the USA? That is incredible.

What is the position in Canada, Catherine?
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#3
Oh I saw that video yesterday. I just somehow 'found it' for some reason. It was very very sad, but thankfully the team of helpers did manage to save some. I hope they are okay.

Basically, people do not realise that by buying MANY products available in stores, which contain egg, they are supporting this awful cruelty (and that is just about everything on the cakes and baked goods shelf....mayonnaise.....ready meals....in fact there are products one would never imagine contain egg, but they do.) Some people think that 'going vegetarian' because they care about animals is a good idea....then forget (or don't know) about the lemon drizzle cake or that chocolate cake which contains so much pain and suffering.

If anyone seriously doesn't want to support this, then it means doing some research, and finding out which products don't contain egg, or are vegan. Or taking reading glasses along and reading labels when buying.
By the way there are some absolutely scrumptious vegan cakes around, usually at health food stores, and may cost a little more but they are gorgeous!

Occasionally, but rarely, there are people who produce small amounts of free-range eggs, and do not cause a cruel death to the male chicks. I knew someone (a neighbour) who did this. She raised the males, then found homes for them where they were wanted, taken good care of, and lived a natural life. But she was a rare breed.
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#4
Birds are not protected in Canada either. I need to do some research and find out what the actual regulations are.

Chickens are not protected. What happened to these chicks appears to be the industry standard. All through their lives, the cruelty chickens endure, is simply the industry standard.

The whole poultry industry needs to be changed. Fixing it is not possible. It is wrong in every way.

Quote:Humans are strange creatures. They are able to separate their thinking:
one one side, to go all sentimental about baby chicks on Easter cards and cakes - "Ah, aren't they cute?!";
on the other side, deliberately to turn a blind eye to the reality of the poultry industry and buy eggs from a supermarket.

This is the real problem. Most people do not connect things together. If I eat eggs and eggs are raised through cruelty then I am a part of the cruelty. Few people make the connection.

In the end the vegan alternative is the only one that is not part of the cruelty.
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Catherine

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#5
That's the problem I'm afraid. The male chicks don't lay eggs and so have no commercial value.
It depends in what country you live, but standard industry practice is for the unwanted male chicks to be gassed or thrown into a mincing machine.
Heart It is our deeds, the accumulated acts of goodness and kindness that define us and ultimately are the true measure of our worth. Service is the coin of the spirit.Heart

http://holy-lance.blogspot.com
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#6
Mostly here, male chicks are tossed live into a grinder. I get the shakes just thinking about it.

Quote:I usually avoid reading the comments below, as they are often argumentative and abusive, but this comment by a former worker showed just how common this practice is: "I worked in a hatchery many years ago, and have seen this happen. I had to quit because I couldn't handle the mortality rate of it all. Almost everyday I went home and cried. It was baby chicks and baby turkeys. Once the machines were all cleaned, if a batch of chicks got missed, the guys would tie them up in a garbage back and put them in the dumpster. I alerted the humane society and hopefully they are more closely monitored. It's heartbreaking!!"

This is a whole different level of cruelty. They are choosing to discard live chicks as so much garbage. It shows a total lack of feeling for living creatures. It is not killing them as part of the job. It is setting them up to die slowly because they are too careless to even kill them.

It is scary to think that there are people out there who are so empty in their souls.
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Catherine

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#7
(07-24-2015, 01:39 PM)Catherine Wrote: It is scary to think that there are people out there who are so empty in their souls.
Indeed. That is a very neat way to put it.
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#8
People get conditioned very easily. They can get conditioned to all sorts of things -good and bad. Just down the lane from me is a barn egg facility which crams 10,000 birds into one shed. (Barn egg production is an unpleasant and short life for the birds.) 10,000 is the 'ideal number' for each shed anyway. The people who manage that place seem very nice and very neighbourly. I can not imagine how they do what they do. They have just become inured to what they are in the midst of. They don't feel it any more....but I am sure they are capable of feeling love for relatives, care for their pets, grief and happiness....etc.
There is something surreal about human nature when it comes to how they justify what they do.
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#9
As a species humans are weird. We are capable of great good and great evil, but the strange thing is that they can both exist in the same person.

If your neighbours stepped back and looked at what they are doing they would shock themselves. They have come to see what they are doing as normal and acceptable. If they really saw what it was like from the chicken's point of view they would be repulsed.

Maybe we need a shocking commercial where "people" are being housed and raised in the situations where animals are being raised.
Ten thousand children in one room or pregnant women in gestation crates. Maybe that is a little too shocking to consider.
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Catherine

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#10
Actually Catherine, your idea would make good material for a video, highlighting the plight of factory farming (for anyone who doesn't yet know about it or who doesn't care to think about it.) I'm sure it could be done without hurting any humans. You could send your idea to an organisation like PETA? It would also be extremely educational for any children taking part, so that they grow up knowing what happens to the animals/meat they eat.
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