It is called "chick culling" and refers to the extremely short, often mere hours, lifespan of chicken hatchlings. Exclusively male. This ruffles the feathers of many a hungry hominid as the culling process means killing the hatchlings either by gassing or running thru a chipper producing animal feed.
As it gives cause to pause it also gives pause to ponder. Outside of gender what is the difference between the chicks who leave alive and those being recycled? Lifespan comes to mind. But either way the chicks meet the same end: death at the hands of humans. And if you think the chipper sounds cruel you need a field trip to a euphemistically named "poultry processing" plant where you'll see terrified chickens hung upside down, partially decapitated, partially par-boiled, denuded, eviscerated and finally dismembered. A chipper-death is beginning to sound like a kindness.
But the chipper gets all the attention. After all death in the service of animal feed pales in comparison to death for people-feed. So it should come as no surprise that there is one high tech remedy for "chick culling" already deployed with two more in the offing. All are based on determining the sex of the fertilized egg so that the male eggs (sounds odd, eh?) can be destroyed before chicks emerge all bedecked in feathery cuteness.
Is this disturbingly similar to the approach humans take with other humans? Are we over-anthropomorphizing our food supply? Where IS Ted Nugent when you need him?
As it gives cause to pause it also gives pause to ponder. Outside of gender what is the difference between the chicks who leave alive and those being recycled? Lifespan comes to mind. But either way the chicks meet the same end: death at the hands of humans. And if you think the chipper sounds cruel you need a field trip to a euphemistically named "poultry processing" plant where you'll see terrified chickens hung upside down, partially decapitated, partially par-boiled, denuded, eviscerated and finally dismembered. A chipper-death is beginning to sound like a kindness.
But the chipper gets all the attention. After all death in the service of animal feed pales in comparison to death for people-feed. So it should come as no surprise that there is one high tech remedy for "chick culling" already deployed with two more in the offing. All are based on determining the sex of the fertilized egg so that the male eggs (sounds odd, eh?) can be destroyed before chicks emerge all bedecked in feathery cuteness.
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