Spencer, IA – 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.
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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.
Warning contains graphic images.
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.”
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.
You mean these crazies are going after other plants not just Rubashkin’s? I am truly shocked. I didn’t think there was anyone on the planet who are worse than Rubashkins who schecht in a humane, Torah-dik way. But now they’ve destroyed a whole family & parnassah of hundreds, it’s time to move on. Good luck, Hy-line. Guilty or innocent, it’s over for you.
PS I didn’t watch the video.
After watching that video, I feel like eating schnitzel….ummm
Does it really not bother you to see so many of Hashem’s creatures killed?
Why do they act with such cruelty toward animals???
I’m 100% with Mercy For Animals on this one. Talk about tzar baal chai!
eat kosher organic chicken and free range eggs — no factory cruelty and the taste is infinitely better!
You are not supposed to laugh at the suffering and death of innocent creatures. And no, this is not a specifically Jewish issue. But Jews should care. An animal to the schachthouse is not something to laugh at.
Is there something wrong for a non jew to kill a animal in order to be able to eat it???.
what do you expect them to do, shecht every animal?
maybe they can be donated to tomchai shabbos?
After reading this I wish I *were* vegan. If organic eggs is the solution — I don’t know (and I don’t see how … they just say the chickens are free-range, they don’t say they let the males live). The problem with all “factory farming” of animals is that it’s done on as large a scale as possible and the animals are not treated humanely. The chickens that do live are kept in “battery cages,” like four to a cage, and they just squeeze out eggs. No life. Thanks for running this story. (I could not bear to watch the video; my neshamah cannot take it.)
i dont understand the problem.
the chicks are dead in a fraction of a fraction of a second
why is it inhumane? they cant feel if they are dead
i do agree though that its a massive waste of good (future) food, but i dont think its inhumane
we can use them 4 Kaparos
It is difficult to watch this video.
On one hand, they die very quickly, no doubt, so it may not be tzar balie chaim.
On the other hand, its still difficult to watch, as a previous poster said, these are Hashem’s creatures, 200 million of them.
I wonder what da’as torah is on this? Can someone ask their rav and report back to us? Thanks.
In 5744 (1984), the Lubavitcher Rebbe called on Jews worldwide to refrain from showing Jewish children, at home and in schools, images of non-kosher animals.
The Rebbe explained that everything that a Jewish child sees imprints on his or her Jewish soul for life, and the negative effect of seeing carniverous and impure animals is detrimental to a young soul.
WORSE, the Rebbe explained, is the damage done when children are shown humanized caricatures of ANY ANIMAL — for example, cartoons of animal characters speaking, walking, and doing human acts — because this perverts a child’s understanding of the animal nature and general perception of reality.
I believe today we are seeing the perverse damage done by exposure to these images in none other than PETA and similar groups led today by adults with a lifetime of misperceptions of animals and animal life. These “professionals” seem to believe that animals are human-like, with human feeling and dignity and can be offended.
The reality is . . . G-d gives us domain over the earth and the animal world — to use them wisely and with human compassion . . . not to let animals suffer needlessly.
That said, if grinding the male chicks instantaneously is the fastest, least painful, wisest way to eliminate the unneeded male chicks, then by all means it is correct.
Ship them to the starving children of India. 200 million chicks could feed a lot of people.
The male chicks are not thrown into the garbage. They are likely used for animal feed. Even if they are just used for high protein fertilizer (ask you local orthodox rabbi if such fertilized vegetables would be fleishig) they are not wasted. As stated they do not grow fast enough to be cost effective to sell as meat, i.e., if it costs you 4 dollars to raise and feed a chicken that you can only sell for 3 dollars, you’re in the wrong business.
As far as the mercy of this organization is concerned, ask them what their stand on abortion is. As a rule, all these organizations espouse artificial morality. That is to say: For millenia most people adhered to some form religion even it were idolatry. A core tenet of religion is some form of conduct between man and the diety and man and his fellow man as well as some purpose in life. With the shift to G-dlessness, man is faced with the prospect that everything happened by itself, man has no purpose he is simply a lucky accident, and he is here on earth simply to hang out until he dies. man however strives and would like to think there is a reason for his existence therefore these groups have created artificial morality that not only gives themselves a purpose but makes them superior to the religions that have dictated morality for millenia. Examples being: Many religions obligate their adherents to circumcision. These artificial moralist say they are more compassionate because they support the rights of the defenceless child against the wishes of his parents. Religion generally says you can’t kill people needlessly. These artificial moralist say they are more compassionate because they don’t allow you to kill an animal even when the need is for food or clothes. Even in cases where the animal is not killed like using chickens for eggs, cows for milk, and sheep for wool, they don’t allow you to “exploit” animals because they like to think they are superior. Likewise feminists groups. The problem is, civilization has had millenia to work on these things and the family structure and religious axioms that have molded civilization for millenia worked fine. The unfounded arrogance that we are somehow smarter and can do things better is displayed every day with more single family homes, more people on welfare, more juvenile deliquents, more unwed teenagers, more unwanted babies, etc. If one really wants to examine the issue, the new more morality resembles the old immorality in many factes. That said I’ll take three male chicks for kaporos thank you.
no more eggs for me.
Does this system exist in Eretz Yisrael? What does Tnuvah and the Co-ops do? Has Badatz already reviewed this issue? I just have questions. I am also certain that groups like this do not value human life similarly. They are Amalek. Cruel to the kind and kind to the cruel. Yidden need to ask a Posek about these matters. Certainly HaShem commanded us NOT to be cruel to animals. There must be a Torah way to run this business and Yidden are mechuyav to follow that way.
Who says we have to consume so many eggs that chickens become commodities. Sooner or later people will become commodities too. In some countries people from the lower classes are already be treated by the elite as replaceable commodities. Are we then going to give the same reasons. Hashem let’s us kill animals for food not as an industrial commodity that can just be discarded when its not economical viable to do anything other with then destroy them. We eat so many eggs in every food you can think off who needs it. It bad for your cholesterol.
THIS IS SHREKLICH!
I saw the clip. it’s mamesh tzar balei chaim.
Im not in the industry so i dont understand all the business around it. i just know this is simply sad and cruel.
Based on the video there doesnt seem to be anything humane at that factory. Between the machines dropping the chicks and the grinder the facility should have a complete overhaul. If this is the industry standard then there is a major flaw in the industry. Just because chickens are considered food doesnt mean they need to be treated in such a way. THIS NEEDS TO BE STOPPED IMMEDIATELY. WHERE ARE THE POLITICIANS AND GOVERMENT AGENCIES NOW.
This is very disturbing, from now on I will think twice before buying any animal products. To all of you who say “the male chickens are needless”, who are we to decide the need of a life? Especially when you make these chickens constantly and systematically reproduce and then you kill them, that is barbaric.
Regarding images of nin-kosher animals – it’s a new invention, something that’s not mentioned anywhere in the Torah and something that contradicts long-standing real customs amongst real yidden going back hundreds of years. Basically, it’s a crock.
these liberals cry when u kill baby chickens but have no issue when hearing about abortions