Germany says ‘no more chick shredding' (WARNING: graphic pix!)

[KamaAina]

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/germany-stops-shredding-chicks.php

‘Chick disposal’ is something the egg industry doesn’t like to talk about. And is it any wonder? It’s hard to imagine eggs selling like hotcakes if carton packaging included pictures like this:

It's the brutal reality of commercial egg production: millions of tiny male chicks ground up alive or suffocated every year because they don't lay eggs. These little guys aren't considered 'commercially viable' to be raised — afer all, they'll never lay eggs, and they're not suitable to be raised for meat.

That half of all chicks born into the egg industry are male poses an enormous ethical issue — not to mention a potential public relations problem for the the egg industry. But finally, there may be hope on the horizon that this brutal practice could come to an end.

Scientists and animal rights campaigners have teamed up in Germany to come up with an alternative option to the mass-slaughter of the 45 million male chicks born into the country's egg industry each year. New technology looks set to determine the sex of each fertilised egg before the chick inside develops — enabling the removal of all male-identified eggs from the hatchery, and leaving only the female eggs to hatch. Germany's Agriculture Minister, Christian Schmidt, has advised that 'chick shredding' could be a thing of the past in Germany by 2017 — making it the first country in the world to stop the practice.

[jberryhill]

1. Nobody ever wondered why there are so many hens and so few roosters?

[HereSince1628]

2. In the way-back people caponized their male chicks, I suppose the surgery is too expensive

for a commercial producer who can just feed male chick bits back to the next generation

[pipoman]

3. These days Cornish cross chick's go from egg to table

In 8 weeks. A capon white leghorn would take 16 weeks and would still be smaller than an 8 week Cornish cross...

[HereSince1628]

4. Yes, I've raised chickens...leghorns are not really a meat breed.

I have raised Cornish cross chicks, buying them as mixed sex cuz that was cheap.

Back in the 90's I kept a small flock of Barred Rocks which are somewhat generalist. I caponized the male chicks myself
Never really doing it enough to get truly fast at it. I was always surprised me how all the castrated chicks didn't die from infections.

[JanMichael]

5. Oh gawd. I looked up capon and yech.

Nasty.

[HereSince1628]

6. Well, my day job involved picking parasitic worms out of gulls

The only thing I didn't like about caponizing chicks was that my nose always itched as soon as I got my fingers messy

[pipoman]

10. I have a caponizing knife but never attempted it...

I've heard caponizing Cornish cross results in something like a small turkey..

It seems to me that those writing this piece and most other people think a chicken is a chicken...leghorns most often used for eggs because of the white shells and high production (average around 300 eggs per year per bird) are boney and nearly devoid of meat. Cornish cross can't be raised old enough to lay because their legs can't support their body mass.

[HereSince1628]

12. I slaughtered for the freezer asap

I saw size variation but don't think I saw many dress out above 3 1/2 lbs.

[BronxBoy]

13. Ours average...

3-6 pounds depending on how long we leave them on grass

[KamaAina]

9. Not a bad idea.

(capon : rooster :: steer : bull)

[pipoman]

16. That works with some chicken breeds

Unfortunately the best laying birds tend to be way inferior meat birds. The chicken meat industry is as scientific as all other farm production..nobody wants to eat a leghorn cockrel...

[MoonRiver]

7. I hope you are against this horrific practice. Couldn't really tell.

But BIG cudos to Germany for banning it!

[KamaAina]

8. Um, yeah!

Hence the emoji.

[MoonRiver]

11. KamaAina

So many people dont't give a shit that I never know.

[pipoman]

14. I'm against it but have no better solution

And since I like eggs and I serve around 150 dozen+ per week I'm against it as long as it doesn't interfere with egg supply...

[Luminous Animal]

15. When I found out about this practice while reading Jonathan Safron Foer's "Eating Animals",

I stopped eating poultry altogether. (I gave up on pigs and cows decades ago.)

I have access to eggs from pasture raised chickens and even though the available quantities are irregular, I've given up completely any "organic" or "free-range" or "pasture raised" eggs from large-ish operations.

Even if the U.S. is able to adopt the technology to determine the sex prior to hatching, I won't go back. Laying chickens (like purebred dogs and cats) are bred to be ill and thus live their lives in chronic pain and in brutal conditions.

[pipoman]

17. Even backyard flocks are subject to this same practice

Most people don't buy "straight run" chicks when they buy laying birds, they buy hens...the hatchery dispatches the male birds...necessary evil for egg production...

[Luminous Animal]

18. Yep. Another fact that I found out from Foer's book. Fortunately, that is not the case here.

As Foer points out, the quantity of ethical poultry farmers are so paltry, that their output could barely feed Staten Island.

Fortunately, my source is one of a few in a very small network that does not kill male birds. When that dries up… well then there go eggs for me.

[pipoman]

19. if they don't kill male birds, what do they do with them?

[Luminous Animal]

20. Use male birds that are meant to be eaten.

Yes. The female birds will not produce like and assembly line.

[pipoman]

21. I've done that...bought straight run wyndotte

They were ok, they still took about 1.5 times the food to get to a similar weight to a Cornish cross and the hens around 15% less eggs than our leghorns...can't bring myself to caponize them.

I'm just not sure it is economically reasonable to use a different breed or feed the leghorn cross males...for the masses of eggs used...in fact needed... every day..