Across Europe, newborn male chicks are gassed or shredded alive just
minutes after hatching because the egg industry considers them “waste.”

Tell EU legislators to end chick-culling by including a full ban in the
updated welfare laws.

[ [link removed] ] Sign the petition 

   
John,

Each year, the industrial egg industry hands down a death sentence to more
than 330 million day-old chicks, simply because they are male.

Some are gassed to death. Others are fed into industrial grinders while
still alive.

Within minutes of hatching, these chicks are treated as waste — destroyed
as part of a system that values profit over life. And in most of the EU,
this cruelty is still completely legal.

But we have the power to change that, right now.

The EU is rewriting its farm-animal welfare laws for the first time in
years. And lawmakers are deciding whether to include a full ban on
chick-culling in the new legislation. If we act now, we can force that ban
into law.

[ [link removed] ]Sign the petition demanding that the EU ban the killing of day-old male
chicks.

Scientists have confirmed that chicks can feel pain and fear from the
moment they hatch because their nervous systems are fully functional. Yet
millions are handled like objects on fast-moving production lines, crying
out as they’re sorted and slaughtered.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Countries like Germany and France have
already banned the practice, and humane alternatives — like in-ovo sexing,
which identifies the embryo’s sex before hatching — are already being
used. There’s no justification for allowing millions of chicks to be
killed when humane solutions exist.

If we act now, we can help secure a clear ban in the new laws before
another generation of chicks is killed.

[ [link removed] ]Act now to demand an EU-wide ban on chick-culling.

Last year, people power worked: our pressure pushed the Mexican government
to pass a historic ban on dolphin captivity. Now with the EU reviewing its
laws, a wave of public pressure can end this practice once and for all.



[ [link removed] ] Sign the petition 



Thanks for all that you do,
Deborah and the team at Ekō


More information:

[ [link removed] ]On-farm animal welfare for certain animals: modernisation of EU
legislation
European Commission 19 September, 2025

[ [link removed] ]Ending male chick culling: The economics driving Europe’s poultry shift
The Poultry Site 25 April, 2025

 

 

Ekō is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.

Please help keep Ekō strong by chipping in $3. [link removed]