Cruel death for baby chick’s just days old:
Millions of male chicks are heartlessly killed in hatcheries every year here in the UK because they are male (non egg layers so are surplus to requirements) The British Egg Service insist that the male chicks are killed humanly via gas chambers or hand dropped into macerating machines But as you can see by the undercover video by Viva there is nothing humane about this.
The remaining female chicks are vaccinated (against salmonella)and have their beaks clipped to stop them pecking at other chicks / hens when they are in the close confines of the egg laying facility.
video via Viva https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6i2zg-dkOs

Founder Andrea from Wetnose is sickened by this act and will be writing to Andrea Leadson the Secretary for Environment and bringing it to her attention and asking for answers as to why this method has to continue, Wetnose will let people know the outcome, as people I have spoken too are not even aware of it!

With the world short of food why can’t the male chicks still grow and develop properly in a male only farm environment and be castrated early and killed humanely and sold in shops?

One way is to raise male chickens and castrate them, either surgically or hormonally, and then they become Capons. Some who have tasted capon will tell you that the meat is a superior flavour, more tender with a more buttery texture; they are often bigger birds too. Years ago did we not have Capons?

However, caponization is banned in UK England on animal welfare grounds, I wonder what the rule is on this?

You can of course get capons in France, and I believe it is legal to import them into England - there are a few places where you can get them.

Basically, the choice for the surplus male birds is either death or castration.

The sad fact for male farm animals is that very few males are needed for reproduction, and often the male animal meat isn't as good a quality as the female. The choice is to kill as early as possible, or to castrate and raise for meat - and it doesn't matter whether we are talking about cattle, pigs or sheep - it’s the same for all. It’s either that, or kill them before they get to the age of sexual maturity - lamb, veal, suckling pigs and so on.

Castration just like in dogs and cats, horses and other male animals, makes them more docile and easier to handle, it also makes them fatten up more quickly too.
So again can’t we have farms where Capons and other male animals are raised and killed humanely? A world which is short of food and we are killing half of it just because it’s male, does that sound right to you? I think all our whole food industry needs to look again and find better solutions. Throwing male chicks into mincers can’t be the right answer; we need modern methods and fast.

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