chick sexers paid £40k p.a.
Today, the Dail Mail reports on why no-one wants to work as a ‘chick sexer’ for £40,000 per year.
Read more here.
VLA RESPONSE:
We’re absolutely perplexed as to why industry bosses are surprised they cannot recruit chick-sexers.
Really? Would THEY want to do this for a living?
First, let’s clarify some ambiguity in the piece:
‘a number of the birds, mainly male, are discarded and killed’
=>by the law of reproductive averages 50% of the birds will be killed. They are all male (with the exception of those 2-3% females added in error). They are thrown to their deaths by the chick sexer.
‘only if the birds did not fit the order, and could not be redirected to meat production, that they were humanely culled’
=>no order requires male chicks. Roosters for breeding are produced separately, they are not used for meat as these breeds of high egg yield chickens do not grow meat as well. Watch any processing line and you’ll see it does not have 3 sorting lanes – only 2 – 1 for egg laying chicks and 1 for the conveyor belt taking the males into the grinder where they are shredded alive. (nb in some cases they are just thrown into large waste sacks to die of suffocation) ‘humanely culled’ is a total contradiction in terms.
In addition to this true scenario, we have an industry that is asking humans to work 12 hour shifts doing this extremely repetitive soul destroying work in conditions that include considerable heat and smell and noise, at stressful, high level volumes that are almost impossible to achieve.
Surely only desperation and necessity would compel anyone to even consider this job?!
When the piece states: ‘Mr Large said it was not an issue that had been raised with them’ we therefore have serious doubts that this is the case, as we know from our own research that the vast majority of people are not aware of how the egg industry works and that male chicks are killed in this way; Many people do not even realise that egg laying hens need to be female! It doesn’t cross peoples’ minds because it’s hidden away and doesn’t need to – they just pick up a box of eggs from the supermarket shelf and think no more about it.
But there’s hope in this article! Because perhaps it does demonstrate that people are becoming more aware and that they want to have no part in an industry that treats living beings as mere commodities – where life is so devalued a human is made to pick it up and throw it away as though it were nothing. People are waking up to the reality of it, we’re seeing it day by day as our members grow.
Eggs are unnecessary, this cruelty is unnecessary. Mr Large – we predict one day soon you’ll need a new job. Perhaps you could diversify into working for Bill Gates new venture Hampton Creek – where they’ve made the first plant-based egg – Beyond Eggs – which doesn’t rely on the exploitation of animals and humans?
Meanwhile we’ll encourage people to understand the truth and to replace eggs with a wide variety of other foods and ingredients that cause no harm. You can see the alternatives here, it’s far easier than you think: https://veganlifestyleassoc.com/pre-made/