A new Mercy For Animals Investigation. Crack the System.
This Is Chick Culling
New footage exposes newly hatched chicks ground up alive simply because the egg industry can’t profit from them.
End Chick Culling
THE HIDDEN PRACTICE BEHIND EGG PRODUCTION
What is ‘chick culling?’
Chick culling is the mass killing of newly hatched chicks—mostly males—because they cannot lay eggs or turn a profit.
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 them to death.
- Gassing: Chicks are placed in a sealed chamber where carbon dioxide or an oxygen-depleting inert gas is introduced, causing them to die from lack of oxygen.
- Neck breaking: Chicks are killed by forcibly separating the skull from the upper spine.
89%
In a 2023 US survey, 89% of respondents said they were unaware that hatcheries killed male chicks.
73%
In a 2023 US survey, 73% of respondents believed the egg industry had a responsibility to find an alternative.
Ground Up Alive
Thousands of male chicks were sent alive into industrial grinders because they could not lay eggs.
Treated Like Objects
Fragile chicks were thrown, dragged, and carried along conveyor belts and industrial equipment with little regard for their fear or pain.
Killed for Being Unsold
Even healthy female chicks were killed when the hatchery had no buyer.
Take Action to End Chick Culling
Help make chick culling a thing of the past.
Newly hatched chicks should not be ground up alive or suffocated simply because the egg industry sees no value in them.
Add your name if you agree: Chick culling should end. Every signature helps show companies, policymakers, and industry leaders that people expect better 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 pressure for a kinder food system.
Want to do even more right now? Your gift can help power this campaign and Mercy For Animals’ critical work to protect farmed animals and create lasting change.
About Half the Chicks Hatched are Male
Their sex (and perceived lack of value in the eyes of a cruel industry) meant that their fate was a painful and unnecessary death.
From Hatch to Trash
Within hours of hatching, chicks are separated by sex. For males, simply being born is enough to mark them for a horrific death.
In many parts of the world, it’s standard egg industry practice for male chicks to be ground up alive or killed with gas. At this hatchery, they were placed in boxes and dumped into a funnel with blades.
The remains of dead chicks were found decomposing in outdoor dumpsters.
It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
Technology can identify a chick’s sex while still inside the egg, before hatching.
Known as in-ovo sexing, this technology can prevent male chicks from being born only to be brutally killed.
Progress Is Possible. What’s Standing in the Way?
In-ovo sexing is a technology that identifies an embryo’s sex during incubation. It can prevent male chicks from being born only to be brutally killed shortly afterward.
Companies must adopt available alternatives, set clear deadlines, and report their progress. Policymakers have the power to help make in-ovo sexing the standard, not the exception.
And together, we can create a better way.
From Hidden Practice to Real Progress
For years, chick culling stayed out of sight. Investigations exposed it, countries began banning, and new technology is proving this cruelty can end.
Mercy For Animals Exposes U.S. Hatchery Cruelty
An undercover investigation at Hy-Line North America documented male chicks sent into macerators and others mishandled or left to die, exposing chick culling to a national audience.
Mercy For Animals Exposes Canadian Hatchery Cruelty
At Horizon Poultry in Ontario, an investigator documented chicks violently handled and killed by maceration. The findings prompted an investigation by the Ontario SPCA.
Mercy For Animals Renews Scrutiny of Chick Culling
Hidden-camera footage from Maple Lodge Farms showed chicks thrown, slammed against equipment, and ground up alive, renewing scrutiny of hatchery practices no Canada.
France Moves to End Chick Culling
France announced plans to prohibit the killing of newly hatched male chicks, pointing to emerging in-ovo sexing technology as an alternative to killing chicks after hatching.
Germany Passes a National Chick-Culling Ban
Germany’s Bundestag passed legislation banning the killing of male chicks. The nationwide prohibition took effect January 1, 2022, accelerating the shift toward alternatives.
In-Ovo Sexing Expands Across Europe
In-ovo sexing moved rapidly into commercial hatcheries across Europe. By the end of 2022, 17 machines had reportedly been installed as countries pushed the industry toward change.
In-Ovo Sexing Arrives in U.S. Hatcheries
NestFresh became the first U.S. egg producer to adopt commercial in-ovo sexing, showing that technology capable of preventing chick culling had reached the U.S. market.
Conceptual Image of In-Ovo Sexing Technology
Hatch Check Certification Launches
United Egg Producers Certified launched Hatch Check, a program verifying eggs from supply chains that use in-ovo sexing or raise male chicks instead of routinely culling them.
Mercy For Animals Exposes Chick Culling in Brazil
A new Mercy For Animals investigation documents newly hatched chicks thrown onto conveyor belts, roughly handled, and sent alive into industrial grinders—bringing a hidden global industry practice into public view.
Speak Up for Animals
Add your name to call for an end to the routine mass killing of newly hatched chicks.
Most people have never heard of chick culling. Help make this hidden practice impossible to ignore.
Sign up to volunteer and help turn awareness into action for baby chickens.
This Is Bigger Than One Hatchery
The footage on this page was captured at an egg-industry hatchery in Brazil in 2026. But chick culling is not limited to this facility, or to Brazil.
Every year, billions of newly hatched chicks are killed around the world because the egg industry cannot profit from them.
This investigation offers a rare look inside a system most people never see. It reveals what can happen when living, feeling animals are reduced to numbers on a production schedule.
Those Who Witnessed the System
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 killed with the others.
Chico wanted what every animal wants: to live.
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.
No Animal Should Be Ground Up Alive
Chick culling is hidden, cruel, and unnecessary.
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.
Your Gift Can Change Their Future
Your gift can help protect chicks from needless suffering, expose what the egg industry keeps hidden, and push for solutions that can change millions of lives.
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