HYDERABAD: Thousands of chicks are killed in hatcheries every week. Because they are male.
The methods are brutal. Some hatcheries throw male chicks alive into large high-speed grinding machines. It’s called maceration. Some are electrocuted until dead. Some are suffocation to death in plastic bags.
In the egg industry, male chicks are of no use to egg-producing facilities. Male chicks are killed immediately (typically within 15 minutes) of hatching.
An investigative video showing how male chicks are killed by drowning, burning and grinding in prominent hatcheries in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh was released by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA)-India in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
An edited version of the footage shows chicks being thrown into a fire pit by workers. In the film, when a young bird tried to escape, it is picked up and thrown back in. The film shows hundreds of chicks being dumped into drums and another drum is put on top to suffocate them.
Representatives of PeTA said the investigation was conducted by the Israel-based group Anonymous for Animal Rights, who visited the hatcheries and shot video footage from March to May 2016.
Nikunj Sharma, government affairs liasion at PeTA-India, said male chicks are considered useless by egg-producing hatcheries and they are killed after the sex of the chicks is determined. Around 180 million chicks are killed in India every year. He said a few hatcheries sell each chick for just 25 paisa to fish farms, dumping them in vans.
"We have sent a copy of this video and a report to the chief ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and the agriculture ministers and chief secretaries of the two States, asking them to look for options such as adopting in ovo-sexing technology. In this technology, the sex of a chick can be determined before they are born, a few hours after an egg is laid. This will prevent the suffering of male chicks," Nikunj Sharma said at a press conference.
However, he said ovo technology is not commercially available in any part of the world. "This technology is at a very advanced stage of becoming commercially viable," he said.
The State governments were sent the report and video by e-mail on Tuesday morning and PeTA-India would contact the companies where the killing practices are taken up.