Chicks on ‘conveyor belt to death’

CAMPAIGNERS in Britain yesterday released undercover footage of a “conveyor belt to death” for millions of male baby chicks killed as part of the egg industry.

Vegetarian organisation Viva! said some 30 million to 40 million male chicks were killed each year by gassing or being thrown into electric mincers shortly after they hatch because they are the wrong sex to lay eggs.

The covert footage captured at two English hatcheries shows the chicks on conveyor belts, with the males being sorted from the females which go on to become laying hens. The males are either transported into a gassing machine or go into a mincing machine, the footage shows.