The Egg Industry Kills 350 Million Male Chicks A Year, But New Tech Offers An Alternative

[Twin Tiers Living 525]

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WILTON, Iowa (AP) — Every year the U.S. egg industry kills about 350 million male chicks because, while the fuzzy little animals are incredibly cute, they will never lay eggs, so have little monetary value.

That longtime practice is changing, thanks to new technology that enables hatcheries to quickly peer into millions of fertilized eggs and spot male embryos, then grind them up for other uses before they mature into chicks. The system began operating this month in Iowa at the nation’s largest chick hatchery, which handles about 387,000 eggs each day.

“We now have ethically produced eggs we can really feel good about,” said Jörg Hurlin, managing director of Agri Advanced Technologies, the German company that spent more than a decade developing the SUV-sized machine that can separate eggs by sex.

 

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[Chris 3,379]

While I agree it's an unpleasant truth, the opposite side of this is the male chicks are also sometimes euthanized and preserved to be used as food in zoos. .

I'm still not ordering "straight run" chicks and ending up with a bunch of roosters neither I or anyone else wants.