548
They're Usually Shredded Alive Rule :(
(i.imgur.com)
They're usually shredded alive almost immediately because they're seen as "waste" since they don't lay eggs
For some more context:
That's only in industrial egg production. If you're a local farmer and you need to dispose of the males, your go to quick and painless option might be a potato sack or your hands.
Industrial egg production is the vast majority of egg production. Using the word only there is perhaps a bit misleading when for instance, 98.2% of US egg production is from factory farms [1]
I'm not sure one can call any of those methods painless either
The industry is slowly evolving away from it tho. I've seen "no chick killing" or something similar on labels in German shops.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/climate/chickens-egg-industry-humane.html
The technology for it that currently does not scale to higher egg consumption rather well among other potential problems
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22374193/eggs-chickens-animal-welfare-culling
Culling unhatched eggs seems less cruel to me than culling <1 day hatchlings. Cute-bias, I know.
Seems to scale somewhat in Europe, talking many many millions of eggs per year too.
At least trying is better than nothing.
Not saying it's perfect, but tech is advancing thought it would be interesting to add that to this thread...
That is because it got forbidden. They never would do something that lessens their profit without being forced to do it.