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Thousands are urging the United States to ban the culling of male chicks.
International organization Animal Equality has launched an online petition to scrap the controversial practice. It has garnered more than 7,000 signatures at the time of writing.
Culling of chicks
According to the charity, in the US alone, more than 260 million male chicks are killed each year. This is because male chicks can’t lay eggs and are therefore deemed ‘worthless’ by the egg industry.
Sharon Núñez is the President of Animal Equality. In a statement sent to PBN, she said: “This practice is unacceptable and must be legally prohibited.
“No consumer would consider suffocating chicks in a trash bag or grinding them up alive humane…
“It’s time for legislators to act swiftly to ban this despicable slaughter and for US egg producers to immediately stop the avoidable killing of day-old chicks.”
Sex-determining technology
Animal Equality is now calling for new technology – which can rapidly determine a chick’s sex as early as possible in the egg production process – to replace the culling.
Advances in the technology, known as in-ovo sexing, have seen both Germany and France move towards banning culling.
Earlier this year, Germany’s Cabinet approved a draft law that prohibits the practice from January 1, 2022.
‘A significant step forward’
Moreover, according to The Guardian, agriculture minister Julia Klöckner says the move is ‘a significant step forward for animal welfare’.
She then added: “We have invested millions of euros in alternatives, bringing animal welfare and economic efficiency together on German soil.”
