Easter 2012: Nobody Minds Dyeing The Egg, But The Chicken Is Another Story

The New York Times:

Cute as they are, they are not made of marshmallow.

If only they were, nobody would have a problem with newborn chicks that are dyed in brilliant colors — neon, Fruity Pebbles, pastel, Crayola box — to serve as festive Easter gifts.

This article originally featured a piece by MNN, which you can now find here.

Read the whole story at The New York Times

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Comments

[Waterlooboy]

12:31 AM on 04/08/2012

It's okay as long as you don't mistake them for Marshmallow Peeps. Although that is about the most disgusting candy on the planet.

[FTracy3]

10:41 PM on 04/07/2012

It's a little cruel, but it is kind of fun to go to KFC and ask for purple.

[NikitaAhn]

02:55 AM on 04/07/2012

Disgusting - as is the way all "food" animals are treated in this country. Sadly, dyeing little baby chickens bright colors is nothing compared to the treatment those same poor birds would get in an egg or meat factory farm. Crammed in battery cages, beaks cut without numbing, confined in dark, crowded, loud, filthy conditions all their life, often standing on the bodies of their dead peers - if they're lucky, their throats are cut and they die before their bodies are dunked in boiling water to de-feather them. Those that thrash around too much and avoid the blade end up boiled alive.

If you think coloring chicks is cruel and disgusting (and it is), but you eat eggs or meat, I would respectfully suggest that you educate yourself about the horrors of the meat/dairy/egg industry and TORTURE that those animals endure for the sake of human appetites. Not to mention the environmental impact and the total waste of energy in feeding trillions of tons of grain to animals. It takes 16 pounds of grain to produce ONE pound of beef, and almost HALF of the water in the US goes to agricultural animals - thousands of gallons to make ONE pound of beef. If we fed the grain that the US ALONE uses to produce meat in ONE year to people directly, we could feed more than the GLOBAL projected population of 2050 for a year.

[RedDonnaAnn]

12:46 AM on 04/07/2012

Really? Hormones, cages and total darkness aren't enough for us? Now they have to live out their chemically damaged lives in embarrassing colors? How much does this mess up their little minds?

[Subsoil73]

10:36 AM on 04/09/2012

Read the article - The colored fluff goes away in a few weeks when they start to develop feathers.

Funny how so many experts on farm animals and their production practices know nothing about farm animals and production practices.

[RedDonnaAnn]

08:49 PM on 04/09/2012

I did read the article. And it's pathetic and unnecessary. People will buy these cute lil pink and green and blue chicks and when they molt, they'll throw them away. Just like puppies or kittens or baby alligators.

[ItsGettingWeird]

09:23 PM on 04/06/2012

If someone's getting rich doing this, does it make him a "chick magnate?"

[Cody30]

09:19 PM on 04/06/2012

Pathetic, but not surprising if you look at how we allow slaughter animals to be treated.

[Belinda Watson]

05:16 PM on 04/06/2012

Yes, it's cruel. Further, stupid people buy chicks and bunnies, not mindful that they grow into rabbits and chickens. The animals end up dead or cruelly discarded when they outgrow their cuteness.

[Jessica Gregory]

09:05 PM on 04/06/2012

As it is with most baby animals e.g. Kittens, Puppies, etc. etc. It's terrible.

[Mrs Robinsons]

03:12 PM on 04/06/2012

It IS cruel.