The Killing of Male Chicks for the Love of Money
A Shooting Ourselves in the Foot: The Sanitizing of Violence in Our Society Article from All-Creatures.org

Throughout the ages, we have accepted killing, violence, and violent behavior as just being a part of life - it's time we change!

By: Frank L. Hoffman

In 1 Timothy 6:10 we are told:

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.  Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
(NIV)

A practice in the egg production business brings this Bible message to heart and expresses how we have come to sanitize this violent practice in our society. As egg production always involves the production of "excess" roosters with no commercial value - half the population of chicks hatched are roosters - the brothers of the "free-range" and "battery" hens are trashed at birth or sold to laboratories, etc.

A dumpster behind a hatchery for laying hens is filled with dead and dying male chicks who are of no economic value to the egg industry. (Photo courtesy of Farm Sanctuary)

This is an economic decision.  In our society we have little concern for the lives of animals, and this is but one example.  We want our eggs, and we don't seem to care how they get to our tables.  We don't want to think about all the pain and suffering and inhumane treatment we cause these living, breathing, feeling, and yes, loving beings, beings that God created as living souls (in Hebrew, neh-fesh khah-yawh), just as He created us.

We need to wake up to the truth of the way things really are in our society.   We need to recognize what the love of money is doing to us.   I believe this practice is most definitely evil, just as we are told in the Bible.  It is a practice that hardens our hearts.  It is one more way in which we have been sanitizing violence in our society and "shooting ourselves in the foot".

Go on to: LOVE OF MONEY: The Killing of 22,000,000 Monarch Butterflies
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