Animal Cruely vs Consumerism

Warning: Disturbing video for animal lovers.

P3ST showed me this video clip about how animal cruelty occurs due to consumer demands.

Thrown, dropped, mutilated, and ground-up alive. This is the disturbing reality faced by hundreds of thousands of chicks each day at the world's largest egg-laying breed hatchery Hy-Line International in Spencer, Iowa.

New hidden camera footage obtained at this facility during a http://www.MercyForAnimals.org undercover investigation gives a disturbing glimpse into the cruel and industrialized reality of modern hatcheries.

The warm, comforting, and protective wings of these newly hatched chicks' mothers have been replaced with massive machines, quickly moving conveyor belts, harsh handling, and distressing noise. These young animals are sorted, discarded, and handled like mere cogs in a machine.

For the nearly 150,000 male chicks who hatch every 24 hours at this Hy-Line facility, their lives begin and end the same day. Grabbed by their fragile wings by workers known as "sexers," who separate males from females, these young animals are callously thrown into chutes and hauled away to their deaths. They are destined to die on day one because they cannot produce eggs and do not grow large or fast enough to be raised profitably for meat. Their lives are cut short when they are dropped into a grinding machine tossed around by a spinning auger before being torn to pieces by a high-pressure macerator.

Over 21 million male chicks meet their fate this way each year at this facility.

For the surviving females, this is the beginning of a life of cruelty and confinement at the hands of the egg industry. Before even leaving the hatchery they will be snapped by their heads into a spinning debeaker a portion of their sensitive beaks removed by a laser. Workers toss and rummage through them before they are placed 100 per crowded box and shipped across the country.

The callous disregard for animal welfare at this facility is not isolated. In fact, the conditions documented during this investigation are completely standard and acceptable within the commercial egg industry. Referred to by Hy-Line corporate leaders as mere "genetic products," these chicks are treated just as they are viewed as inanimate objects, rather than the sentient creatures they are.

Driven by consumer demand, the egg industry will continue to exploit, abuse, and kill day-old animals as long as doing so remains profitable. Empowered consumers can put their ethics on the table by choosing kindness over cruelty at each meal by adopting an animal-friendly vegan diet.

Would you call this evil? To me, I still think chickens are prey animals, so they are meant to be eaten. WK was horrified at the sight of the make chicks being ground up ALIVE. But to me, I found myself suprisingly at ease with this because they die almost instantaneously. Their entire nervous system has been ground up, the true death would have been instant. In contrast, breaking the male chick's neck may not always result in death! Beheading takes about 30 seconds for true death to occur.

Actually, I was more disturbed at the sight of the chicks' beaks being lasered off. If you're wondering why, I would liken that action to removing a teenager's teeth off and leaving him/her toothless for the rest of their miserable existence.

I think this video is also too biased against meat eaters. Chicken meat is a primary source of protein for most people. And given the monumental increase in human population the past 200 years, farming practices have to move on with time in order to meet the demands of the meat consumers. Ask any meat farmer, they don't have any affection for their lifestock! To love your animal would mean not being able to kill it. So should mega-farmers like Hy-Line be presecuted for mass-producing meat in the most efficient manner they could come up with?

As for rough handling of chicks, one must bear in mind that these are our food, not pets. Tender loving care requires time and effort, and it usually breed emotional attachment. This is something that all lifestock farmers avoid. These animals are a means of income, they are FOOD. Plain and simple, its just a matter of when and how they die. So to me, I think lasering off their beaks would be a greater cause of agitation, simply because it is making them suffer throughout the durations of their pathetic little lives. At least the males died quickly.

Another point to note is that asking everyone to turn vegetarian would be impractical either, this is due to a shortage of landspace for farming. Another cute thing is, this is the first time I've heard of males being killed off in the favor of females. ^^ So much so for zhong4 nan2 qing1 nu3. =P