Argument
The egg industry doesn’t harm animals
In the egg industry, only females are required since males cannot lay eggs. So at the hatcheries, male and female chicks are separated as they pass through a conveyor belt.
Males are considered useless so they are either killed at the hatchery (either by being macerated alive, drowned or suffocated) or thrown into the bin alive. Females are painfully de-beaked and sent off to farms, where they will lay a painful 300+ eggs per year due to genetic manipulation (as opposed to a wild chicken’s 20 or so per year). This process happens on any farm, regardless of it being free-range, organic or whatever.
After hens stop producing eggs at a profitable rate, they are sent to slaughter, which involves being thrown into an electric bath to be stunned, then hoisted up upside down and going along a conveyor belt to have their throats slit. Many chickens will remain fully conscious after their throats are slit and will be boiled alive in the de-feathering tank afterwards. Their slaughter happens at around two years of age. The natural lifespan of a chicken is eight years.