A New Mercy For Animals Global Report. Crack the System.
This Is Chick Culling
International documentation highlights what happens to newly hatched male chicks during egg production globally.
End Chick Culling
THE REALITIES OF THE EGG INDUSTRY
What is ‘chick culling?’
Chick culling refers to the global practice of killing male chicks shortly after hatching because they cannot lay eggs.
7 billion male chicks are killed each year globally.
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- Maceration: Chicks are fed into a high-speed machine whose rotating blades grind and kill them instantly.
- Gas Suffocation: Chicks are placed in a sealed chamber with carbon dioxide or an oxygen-depleting inert gas, causing them to die from lack of oxygen.
- Neck breaking: Chicks are killed by forcibly separating the skull from the upper spine.
75%
Around the world, learning about chick culling sparks an overwhelming call for modern alternatives. In a 2023 EU survey, 75% of respondents found day-old chick culling unacceptable.
82%
In a 2023 UK survey, 82% of respondents opposed chick culling, while 77% of respondents supported adopting in-ovo sexing technology.
Systemic Culling
Most people remain unaware that an estimated 7 billion male chicks are culled worldwide each year.
High-Volume Processing
Sorting happens behind closed doors early in the supply chain, so the practice remains largely invisible to the public.
Alternatives Exist
Increasing transparency is the first step toward ending cruel practices and modernizing our food system.
Take Action to End Chick Culling
Help make chick culling a thing of the past.
Newly hatched chicks should not be culled simply because they do not lay eggs.
Add your name if you agree: we need to end chick culling. Every signature helps show companies, policymakers, and leaders that we expect higher welfare standards for animals.
You’re in. 🐣
Thank you for adding your name and taking action to help end chick culling.
Your signature sends a clear message to companies, policymakers, and industry leaders: Chick culling should end. Together, we’re building support for a kinder food system.
Want to do even more right now? Around the world, we’re building a powerful community to drive real change. Sign up to join the movement!
About Half the Chicks Hatched are Male
Because male chicks cannot lay eggs, conventional systems cull them immediately after hatching. Their sex determines their fate within 24 hours.
This Is Bigger Than One Facility
The documentation featured on this page illustrates practices common to international egg production. Chick culling is not isolated to single facilities or specific regions; it occurs globally.
Every year, billions of newly hatched chicks are culled worldwide. This documentation offers a rare look inside a high-volume system, showing why we must update welfare standards for living, feeling animals.
From Hatch to Trash
Within hours of hatching, facilities separate chicks by sex. Male chicks are marked for removal.
Facilities routinely cull male chicks on their first day using maceration machinery or gas systems.
Culled chicks are discarded and redirected into secondary agricultural uses, such as fertilizer production.
The System Doesn’t Have to Kill Them
Technology can identify an embryo’s sex while still inside the egg—well before hatching. Known as in-ovo sexing, this innovation prevents male chicks from being born only to be culled shortly after.
Progress Is Possible. What’s Standing in the Way?
In-ovo sexing technology determines an embryo’s sex during early incubation. It stops the cycle of hatching male chicks only to cull them.
Companies must adopt available alternatives, set clear implementation deadlines, and report progress transparently. Policymakers can help make ending chick culling the standard.
Together, we can drive meaningful progress.
Chico’s Story
As a box carried hundreds of chicks toward the grinder, one baby fought to get away.
Chico climbed the equipment, balanced in a narrow corner, and hid there for several minutes.
For a moment, he escaped notice. But he was eventually found and culled with the others.
Chico wanted what every animal wants: to live.
Speak Up for Animals
Add your name to support an end to the routine culling of newly hatched chicks.
Most people have never heard of chick culling. Help make this practice impossible to ignore.
Join our volunteer network and help turn public awareness into positive change for animals.
The Surprising Lives of Chickens
Chickens can recognize and remember up to 100 individual faces, including other chickens and humans.
Chickens remember what happens to them and use past experiences to make future decisions.
Even newly hatched chicks can distinguish between different quantities and have demonstrated basic addition and subtraction abilities.
Building a More Compassionate System
Chick culling is unnecessary and avoidable.
Newly hatched chicks are sensitive animals capable of feeling pain and stress.
Add your name to create a future without chick culling.
Get the Facts About Chick Culling
Learn what chick culling is, why it happens, and how available solutions can help end it.
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