Its hard not to see the UK retailers point somewhat. Saying to the consumer all our other eggs involve feeding male chick’s into a blender or gas chamber, but these more expensive eggs don’t is not going to sit well with most customers who simply want cheap eggs and to not think beyond free range about where they came from. It strikes me as a behavioural marketing issue that could be tackled though, just needs some innovative thinking. Ai and technology will solve the issue at scale and cost eventually im sure.
FYI, The killing of day old male chicks happens in free range too.
People at Easter, “awwe wook at the fwuffy chicks”
Followed by, “nah, get them gassed or thrown in the blender, it’s fine, I need me egg sarnie”
So trying to understand the process: male chicks are killed because they’re non egg laying right? But then how does raising chickens for meat work, it’s still only the ones that can lay eggs?
Stop abusing chickens full stop
Why can the male chicks not be raised into adult male chickens and then used for meat? Yes, I know that the variety used for egg production is not the same as that used for meat production, but that doesn’t seem like a good answer: All varieties of chickens lay eggs, and the meat from all varieties is edible, whether male or female. So although it might not be current practice, it also isn’t impossible, surely?
Yes, I know the ideal is not raising any chickens at all for either egg production or meat production, so that should be the ultimate goal. But herein lies the point – while that might eventually become reality, it also isn’t going to happen any time soon. So to avoid letting the perfect be the enemy of the better, why not go for a more reasonable (even if only slightly) interim solution?
What do you suggest they do with them?
Had a mate who used to work down Bernard Matthews, who used to talk about what amounts to wheeling a barrow full of male chicks and dumping them into a blender
> She added: “I have suggested starting with just one brand that is ‘free of chick culling’ on the shelves but, again, the response is that the customer will realise all the other eggs are ‘with chick culling’, and they wouldn’t have known that before.”
Yeah, lets just keep deceiving the populace instead. Ignorance is bliss.
Just got to love capitalism man
There are already solutions to this: /r/toolgifs/comments/vwevad/noninvasive_process_of_determining_sex_of/
Guess it’s pricey though.
This campaign only makes sense to people who believe that animals have an intrinsic right to life for everyone else it is a ludicrous suggestion.
Egg laying hens are bred to produce a high yield of egg, broiler chickens are bred to produce a high yield of meat. If an egg-laying hen has a male offspring then it will have the genetic superiority for something that it cannot do while it will be genetically inferior for meat production.
Therefore, the best thing is to humanely destroy the male chickens and put it to good use as pet food or fertiliser. If not, what are we going to do with a doubled population of broiler chickens in which half of them are useless. It would require more land and more resources to rear, process, and transport their skinny carcasses into supermarkets where nobody will buy them or food factories where they’ll only get a smidge of meat off each carcass.
The campaign will only result in vast amounts of waste.
Again, this only makes sense if you believe the chickens have and inherent right to life.
I like to imagine vampires having debates like this at Davos
I learned about this a bit ago, they can scan the eggs before hatching to determine sex and avoid killing fully aware chicks
So I don’t get it, do people here support animal rights or not? Are we all okay with torture and rape but draw the line at infantile murder?
I’m sorry but I just don’t buy it. I don’t get how people can support this but not support rights for cows and pigs who have the same emotional intelligence as a 4 year old human. Do we care but just not to the point of changing breakfast?
The price of 6 medium free range eggs in Tesco has went up from around £0.89 in 2020 to around £1.10 now.
The price increase as a result of adopting breeding technology to try to stop the slaughter of male baby chicks might only be around 5 – 8 pence on a box of eggs.
So, it’s doubtful that many shoppers would even notice a price increase, given how quickly the price of eggs has risen over the past few years anyway.
The opposition to this technology is almost certainly more out of concern for the profit margins of the large retailers, and also the poultry and egg industries, rather than concern for the finances of customers, and certainly animal welfare seems to be fairly far down the list of priorities for the industries as well.
[removed]
What do they propose we do with the male chicks? They can’t properly be raised for meat nor do they lay eggs. I guess we could use them in pet food if we don’t already?
I don’t think now is the time to make a staple food more expensive.
>UK retailers
What? What does the retail sector care?
They kill the egg laying hens before their natural lifespan is up too. What are they going to do with all of the cockerels? Raise them til they’re elderly? Cull them early for meat?
I don’t understand how any of this is a step up from killing them at a day old. At least they avoid a life stuffed in a hellish super sized barn until then. Plus, they’d fight in a barn, right?
We should have higher welfare standards for livestock. This may increase prices a little but I think it’s worthwhile.
We need genemod chicken, or reliably vat grown without animal foetal serum, asap. I once saw a stream of fuzzy boy chicks gravity-rolling into an industrial grinder. Grim stuff.
Go vegan.
Solves the whole issue.
Cant male chicks be raised for meat?
People don’t need chicken becoming way more expensive right now.
If you eat meat of any kind you are complicit in this kind of trade
Can we do male calves next?
>crushing or gassing
What the fuck is wrong with these people? They vote tory and they crush baby chickens? I might just go vegan for the simple of fact of fuck these people. Yes, we eat might. We kill things to eat them. But we don’t have to be cnuts about it, and we sure as shit don’t need to kill millions of babies every year because reasons.
Is there any way to source these eggs in the UK?
When I win the euro millions I’m gonna build a refuge for those guys to go to instead. I concede it might get out of hand quickly.
29 million.
I’m no animal rights activist, far from it, but that’s fucking obscene.
If you say love is love, you kinda have to go with life is life and that’s a terrifying number.
Yes I’m drunk but I’m not that wrong.
Fuck what ya heard.
Chicken 2022 = cancer.
Unfortunately people are supportive of animal welfare until their food goes up in price. Eggs for example are quite cost sensitive for your average consumer.
What if we genetically modify a breed of chickens to only have female kids?
That way you have two breed groups, a small one that is just for breeding where you get males and your mass egg layers, who only make more egg layers.
No more chickens need to die for being born the wrong gender.
36 comments
Its hard not to see the UK retailers point somewhat. Saying to the consumer all our other eggs involve feeding male chick’s into a blender or gas chamber, but these more expensive eggs don’t is not going to sit well with most customers who simply want cheap eggs and to not think beyond free range about where they came from. It strikes me as a behavioural marketing issue that could be tackled though, just needs some innovative thinking. Ai and technology will solve the issue at scale and cost eventually im sure.
FYI, The killing of day old male chicks happens in free range too.
People at Easter, “awwe wook at the fwuffy chicks”
Followed by, “nah, get them gassed or thrown in the blender, it’s fine, I need me egg sarnie”
So trying to understand the process: male chicks are killed because they’re non egg laying right? But then how does raising chickens for meat work, it’s still only the ones that can lay eggs?
Stop abusing chickens full stop
Why can the male chicks not be raised into adult male chickens and then used for meat? Yes, I know that the variety used for egg production is not the same as that used for meat production, but that doesn’t seem like a good answer: All varieties of chickens lay eggs, and the meat from all varieties is edible, whether male or female. So although it might not be current practice, it also isn’t impossible, surely?
Yes, I know the ideal is not raising any chickens at all for either egg production or meat production, so that should be the ultimate goal. But herein lies the point – while that might eventually become reality, it also isn’t going to happen any time soon. So to avoid letting the perfect be the enemy of the better, why not go for a more reasonable (even if only slightly) interim solution?
What do you suggest they do with them?
Had a mate who used to work down Bernard Matthews, who used to talk about what amounts to wheeling a barrow full of male chicks and dumping them into a blender
> She added: “I have suggested starting with just one brand that is ‘free of chick culling’ on the shelves but, again, the response is that the customer will realise all the other eggs are ‘with chick culling’, and they wouldn’t have known that before.”
Yeah, lets just keep deceiving the populace instead. Ignorance is bliss.
Just got to love capitalism man
There are already solutions to this: /r/toolgifs/comments/vwevad/noninvasive_process_of_determining_sex_of/
Guess it’s pricey though.
This campaign only makes sense to people who believe that animals have an intrinsic right to life for everyone else it is a ludicrous suggestion.
Egg laying hens are bred to produce a high yield of egg, broiler chickens are bred to produce a high yield of meat. If an egg-laying hen has a male offspring then it will have the genetic superiority for something that it cannot do while it will be genetically inferior for meat production.
Therefore, the best thing is to humanely destroy the male chickens and put it to good use as pet food or fertiliser. If not, what are we going to do with a doubled population of broiler chickens in which half of them are useless. It would require more land and more resources to rear, process, and transport their skinny carcasses into supermarkets where nobody will buy them or food factories where they’ll only get a smidge of meat off each carcass.
The campaign will only result in vast amounts of waste.
Again, this only makes sense if you believe the chickens have and inherent right to life.
I like to imagine vampires having debates like this at Davos
I learned about this a bit ago, they can scan the eggs before hatching to determine sex and avoid killing fully aware chicks
So I don’t get it, do people here support animal rights or not? Are we all okay with torture and rape but draw the line at infantile murder?
I’m sorry but I just don’t buy it. I don’t get how people can support this but not support rights for cows and pigs who have the same emotional intelligence as a 4 year old human. Do we care but just not to the point of changing breakfast?
The price of 6 medium free range eggs in Tesco has went up from around £0.89 in 2020 to around £1.10 now.
The price increase as a result of adopting breeding technology to try to stop the slaughter of male baby chicks might only be around 5 – 8 pence on a box of eggs.
So, it’s doubtful that many shoppers would even notice a price increase, given how quickly the price of eggs has risen over the past few years anyway.
The opposition to this technology is almost certainly more out of concern for the profit margins of the large retailers, and also the poultry and egg industries, rather than concern for the finances of customers, and certainly animal welfare seems to be fairly far down the list of priorities for the industries as well.
[removed]
What do they propose we do with the male chicks? They can’t properly be raised for meat nor do they lay eggs. I guess we could use them in pet food if we don’t already?
I don’t think now is the time to make a staple food more expensive.
>UK retailers
What? What does the retail sector care?
They kill the egg laying hens before their natural lifespan is up too. What are they going to do with all of the cockerels? Raise them til they’re elderly? Cull them early for meat?
I don’t understand how any of this is a step up from killing them at a day old. At least they avoid a life stuffed in a hellish super sized barn until then. Plus, they’d fight in a barn, right?
We should have higher welfare standards for livestock. This may increase prices a little but I think it’s worthwhile.
We need genemod chicken, or reliably vat grown without animal foetal serum, asap. I once saw a stream of fuzzy boy chicks gravity-rolling into an industrial grinder. Grim stuff.
Go vegan.
Solves the whole issue.
Cant male chicks be raised for meat?
People don’t need chicken becoming way more expensive right now.
If you eat meat of any kind you are complicit in this kind of trade
Can we do male calves next?
>crushing or gassing
What the fuck is wrong with these people? They vote tory and they crush baby chickens? I might just go vegan for the simple of fact of fuck these people. Yes, we eat might. We kill things to eat them. But we don’t have to be cnuts about it, and we sure as shit don’t need to kill millions of babies every year because reasons.
Is there any way to source these eggs in the UK?
When I win the euro millions I’m gonna build a refuge for those guys to go to instead. I concede it might get out of hand quickly.
29 million.
I’m no animal rights activist, far from it, but that’s fucking obscene.
If you say love is love, you kinda have to go with life is life and that’s a terrifying number.
Yes I’m drunk but I’m not that wrong.
Fuck what ya heard.
Chicken 2022 = cancer.
Unfortunately people are supportive of animal welfare until their food goes up in price. Eggs for example are quite cost sensitive for your average consumer.
What if we genetically modify a breed of chickens to only have female kids?
That way you have two breed groups, a small one that is just for breeding where you get males and your mass egg layers, who only make more egg layers.
No more chickens need to die for being born the wrong gender.
What will they do with them now?