IOWA CITY, Iowa – Paul Lasley cringed when he heard about an undercover video showing unwanted chicks being tossed alive into a grinder at an Iowa hatchery.
The video was filmed with a hidden camera at a hatchery in Spencer owned by Hy-Line North America. It shows several chicks dying on the factory floor and male ones being tossed into a grinder, a standard industry practice that was adopted just after World War II, when farmers began raising some hens for the meat and others for just the eggs.
Animal rights groups also oppose a variety of hog lot practices, particularly the castration of hogs and the removal of their tails without anesthetics.
Uncastrated hogs produce meat with a revolting urine taste known as “boar taint.” And farmers clip hogs’ tails because in tight spaces, the animals will chew each others’ tails and can bleed to death. The industry says anesthetizing the animals would be too expensive.
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Enjoy your dinner tonight
