5 Startling Facts the Egg Industry Doesn't Want You to Know

Egg farming is a multi-billion dollar industry that makes a profit off of exploiting the lives of female chickens. Last year, the U.S. egg industry produced nearly 9.1 billion dozen eggs, and since the average American consumes about 300 eggs each year, it's no wonder the industry is booming.

May is National Egg Month — and instead of contributing to the immense pain and suffering egg-laying hens experience on a daily basis, consumers can choose to vote with their dollar and not support the highly exploitative egg industry. 

If you're still looking for a reason to cut eggs from your diet, here are five startling facts about egg production the egg industry doesn't want you to know about:

1. More than 300 million chickens are exploited by the egg industry each year.

In order to keep up with the high demand for eggs, the U.S. egg industry brutally exploits the lives of millions of female chickens each year.

2. Egg-laying hens live in deplorable conditions.

Egg-laying chickens live in horrific conditions where they are confined to small cages made of uncomfortable wire — which chafes their skin, rips out their feathers, and deforms their feet. The overcrowded enclosures often result in aggressive behaviors among chickens, which the egg industry remedies by cutting off their beaks and toes (usually done without anasthetic) so they are unable to fight.

3. "Spent" chickens are usually sent to slaughter when they are 18-months-old.

Once a hen's egg production declines at about one to two years of age, the hens are considered "spent" and are sent to the slaughterhouse. To put this into perspective, the average lifespan of a chicken is eight to ten years.

4. Shortly after birth, chicks are taken away from their mothers.

Shortly after hatching, newborn chicks are taken away from their mothers and placed on a conveyor belt while worker shift through them to determine if they are male or female, a process known as "sexing". Female chicks are sent to egg farms where they produce more than 300 eggs each year. Naturally, hens produce only 10 to 15 eggs per year.

5. Male chicks are killed the day they hatch.

The male chicks are promptly slaughtered by being suffocated in trash bags, decapitated, gassed, crushed, or by being ground up alive — all because the egg industry has no use for them. Globally, around 4 to 6 billion male chicks meet this fate. 

Click here to learn more about factory farming and the egg industry.

Photo: Pixabay