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You can now buy eggs from in-ovo sexed hens

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Re: You can now buy eggs from in-ovo sexed hens

#111
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just google chicken glasses as a start of a thread to pull on.

Yes, I'm aware that chickens can be aggressive or even occasionally cannibalistic (although that's never happened to any groups of chickens I've seen). But that doesn't explain anything about why you're saying an entire hen house can be murdered when you fail to sex chicks. I've never heard that male chicken are worse in this regard, excessive feather pecking is a result of keeping chickens in terrible environments l…

It happens from time to time even with free range chickens if a rooster picks a fight while they're all in the coop for the night.

Re: You can now buy eggs from in-ovo sexed hens

#112
post #48
post #11

If you were a chicken behind the veil of ignorance choosing your fate, would you choose immediate death (male) or a short, difficult, confined life (female)? To many advocates, it’s self-evident that the hen’s life is better than immediate death. This is not obvious to me. It depends on the hen’s quality of life.

I would be happy if we could just ban battery cages to start. I can't think of a more horrible fate aside from being a foie gras goose or a veal calf.

Foie-gras geese and ducks are free range, at least in France. That's a different story when you buy the cheap eastern european ones.

Re: You can now buy eggs from in-ovo sexed hens

#113
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an effect where the visceral emotional response to an execution method overrides the actual cruelty of the act. Lethal injection, for example, is probably horribly painful for at least some of those that experience it[1] but it looks humane to observers. Meanwhile, the trusty guillotine would be my chosen way to go since it's nearly instant. [1] https://eji.org/news/lethal-injections-cause-suffocation-and...

Nitrogen suffocation any day of the week in my opinion. Your brain lives long enough after the guillotine you definitely have time to feel the pain of the cut while your brain can't even register the hypoxic effects from N2 suffocation.

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation

Good demo here: https://youtu.be/kUfF2MTnqAw?si=Fi3590AiHdTBW3r8&t=329

Re: You can now buy eggs from in-ovo sexed hens

#114
post #68
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> conveyer belt of chicks get dumped directly into a meat grinder. I haven't seen it, and correct me if this is not the case, but it doesn't strike me as a bad way to go. Getting macerated beats most of the ways humans and wild animals die. Do these chicks have any idea "what hit them"?

It's been studied and short answer is: no. The alternative is CO2 asphyxiation, but the process is very fast and severs the spine almost immediately. The bigger problem is chicks getting crushed to death by other chicks during processing. Like a lot less happens to those chicks then say, when a flock of chickens is processed.

Are these crushed chicks also processed and sold (for example, as animal / pet feed)? If not, (I am wondering) why can't you just release them in the wild - in some park or forest and let nature take care of it - it's less cruel (in my opinion) if the chick becomes food for some other wildlife.

Re: You can now buy eggs from in-ovo sexed hens

#115
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been studied and short answer is: no. The alternative is CO2 asphyxiation, but the process is very fast and severs the spine almost immediately. The bigger problem is chicks getting crushed to death by other chicks during processing. Like a lot less happens to those chicks then say, when a flock of chickens is processed.

Are these crushed chicks also processed and sold (for example, as animal / pet feed)? If not, (I am wondering) why can't you just release them in the wild - in some park or forest and let nature take care of it - it's less cruel (in my opinion) if the chick becomes food for some other wildlife.

How on earth is that less cruel? Have you seen how birds eat each other?

Re: You can now buy eggs from in-ovo sexed hens

#116
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been studied and short answer is: no. The alternative is CO2 asphyxiation, but the process is very fast and severs the spine almost immediately. The bigger problem is chicks getting crushed to death by other chicks during processing. Like a lot less happens to those chicks then say, when a flock of chickens is processed.

Are these crushed chicks also processed and sold (for example, as animal / pet feed)? If not, (I am wondering) why can't you just release them in the wild - in some park or forest and let nature take care of it - it's less cruel (in my opinion) if the chick becomes food for some other wildlife.

Chickens learn from their mothers how to scrounge for food when they grow up free range. Releasing 1000s of tiny yellow chicks into the wild with no mother is way more cruel than current practises I reckon.

I reckon the chicken industry also generates way more male chickens than what a park can reasonably handle. People eat lots of chickens.

Re: You can now buy eggs from in-ovo sexed hens

#117
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> conveyer belt of chicks get dumped directly into a meat grinder. I haven't seen it, and correct me if this is not the case, but it doesn't strike me as a bad way to go. Getting macerated beats most of the ways humans and wild animals die. Do these chicks have any idea "what hit them"?

There's an effect where the visceral emotional response to an execution method overrides the actual cruelty of the act. Lethal injection, for example, is probably horribly painful for at least some of those that experience it[1] but it looks humane to observers. Meanwhile, the trusty guillotine would be my chosen way to go since it's nearly instant. [1] https://eji.org/news/lethal-injections-cause-suffocation-and...

There's plenty of time to feel excruciating panic walking up to bend over and lose your head. The cut itself may be instantaneous but that's not really all there is to it.

Re: You can now buy eggs from in-ovo sexed hens

#118
post #30
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"10% even think that male chickens can lay eggs" I really didn't see that one coming.

There was also that time when a milk company wrote the names of the cows who produced the milk on the cartons and some feminist complained that all the names were female.

One of the Minecraft mods makes you actually do the video game equivalent (thus not over the correct time period) of how we actually get milk. Instead of just right click on any cow with a bucket (like vanilla Minecraft) that mod requires you to find a boy cow and a girl cow, ensure they're both happy (well fed, no nearby predators etc.), and after a short period nature takes its course and you get a baby cow. Next, steal the baby cow, you can kill it for food or just move it to somewhere mum can't reach it. She's recently given birth so her body will make milk but now there's no baby to drink it, so you can steal the milk.

Re: You can now buy eggs from in-ovo sexed hens

#119
post #112
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be happy if we could just ban battery cages to start. I can't think of a more horrible fate aside from being a foie gras goose or a veal calf.

Foie-gras geese and ducks are free range, at least in France. That's a different story when you buy the cheap eastern european ones.

is the forced feeding until their liver balloons with fat free range too or...

Re: You can now buy eggs from in-ovo sexed hens

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If destroyed early enough one imagines it doesn't have a sufficient brain to have a conscious awareness of its existence and therefore would not suffer fear not pain

Then what about the chickens we slaughter for meat? I don't see how you can support this in-ovo thing, and also eat meat. They seem to be in opposition.

Why? People often stake out positions better than comic book villains without being saints.
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