Few animal industry practices say callous disrespect for life like chick shredding.

In nature, baby chicks call for their moms from the moment they hatch. Their tiny cheeps signal their vulnerability and instinctive need to seek comfort and protection. The instinct of chicks born in industrial hatcheries is no different, except they’ll never get to meet their moms.

Instead, they will be tossed down a series of noisy conveyor belts that will hurl them to their fate. Not all of them will survive.

That’s because millionsofchicksbornintothemeatindustry—andhalfofallchicksbornintotheeggindustry—arekilledas“wasteproducts” on their first day of life. Some will be gassed to death. Many will be tossed into industrial shredders—fully conscious.

Why? Because among the billions of chicks these industries bring into the world every year, a staggering number will be deemed too “economically worthless” to keep alive—even for a day. Stressed, low-paid hatchery workers are afforded just seconds to assess and toss aside any babies who might look too weak to survive the extreme bodily trauma that the meat industry imposes on young chickens. And healthy or not, male chicks born into the egg industry are deemed useless and killed for their inability to lay eggs. The quicker these industries eliminate these so-called inefficiencies, the bigger they make their profit margins.

Horrific practices like this are routine and widespread for two reasons: The food industry has designed systems that treat animals—living, breathing, thinking beings—as mere “objects.” And, they’ve successfully hidden this cruel reality from the caring eyes of the public.

If you believe that animals deserve better, add your name alongside thousands of others uniting to protect animals and speaking up against food industry injustices.