Petition · past parliament
Ban chick shredding practice from the egg industry
Rejected
18 signatures
What the petition asks
40 million chicks are shredded alive or gassed. After the chicks hatched
the birds are dropped onto a conveyor belt where they are sorted by sex. The males are either thrown alive into electronic mincers or instantly gassed to death, their bodies packaged to be fed to reptiles.
the birds are dropped onto a conveyor belt where they are sorted by sex. The males are either thrown alive into electronic mincers or instantly gassed to death, their bodies packaged to be fed to reptiles.
Males of the egg laying breed do not gain weight fast enough to be raised profitably for meat. Very few of them are needed for breeding future generations of laying hens, so killed shortly after birth. The problem of unwanted male chicks exists in all methods of egg production, from battery cages to organic. The British Egg Information Service says it is necessary to dispose of male chicks because they are no longer of used by the food industry, which uses birds specially bred to grow fast.
Why it was rejected
There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.
Timeline
| 6 Mar 2016 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 7 Mar 2016 | Rejected by the Petitions Committee |
Key facts
Signatures
18
Status
Rejected
Rejected
7 Mar 2016
Follow this petition
Sign in to get an email when the government responds, a debate is scheduled or held, or the petition closes.
Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.