Chick culling

Chick culling is the process of killing newly hatched poultry for which the industry has no use. It occurs in all industrialised egg production whether free range, organic, or battery cage - including that of the UK and US. Because male chickens do not lay eggs and only those on breeding programmes are required to fertilise eggs, they are considered redundant to the egg-laying industries and are usually killed soon after they hatch and shortly after being sexed. Many methods of culling do not involve anaesthetic and include cervical dislocation, asphyxiation by carbon dioxide and maceration using a high speed grinder.

Due to modern selective breeding, laying hen strains differ from meat production strains (broilers). Both male and females are grown in broiler production, therefore chick culling does not happen routinely in the broiler industry.

Chicks are also culled in the production of foie gras. However, because males put on more weight than females in this production system, the females are culled.

Prior to the development of modern broiler meat breeds, most male chickens (cockerels) were slaughtered for meat, whereas females (pullets) would be kept for egg production. However, once the industry bred separate meat and egg-producing hybrids, there was no reason to keep males of the egg-producing hybrid. As a consequence, the males of egg-laying chickens are killed as soon as possible after hatching and sexing to reduce losses incurred by the breeder. Special techniques have been developed to accurately determine the sex of chicks at as young an age as possible.

It has been reported that in India for example, more than 180 million male chicks per year are culled. The egg industry in India is growing at the rate of 8-12% yearly, and is the third largest egg producer.

Chicks are also culled in the production of foie gras. After hatching, the ducklings are sexed. Males put on more weight than females, so the females are killed, sometimes in an industrial macerator. Up to 40 million female ducks per year may be killed in this way. The remains of female ducklings are later used in cat food, fertilisers and in the pharmaceutical industry.

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