Male chicks face death by the millions every year - technology means the UK can stop it now

14 June 2025, 14:12

By Irene Campbell MP

Every year, 45 million male chicks are needlessly killed in the UK — a pointless cruelty that the Government has the power - and tools - to end.

Almost two years ago, the Government’s own Animal Welfare Committee (AWC) recommended making "the routine killing of newly hatched chicks illegal as soon as reliable, accurate methods for sexing eggs prior to hatch are available."

Now, in summer 2025, the UK has a new administration. It is past time to fulfil this recommendation.

By the time you finish reading this piece, almost 200 male chicks will have been killed by the egg industry – 86 per minute, almost 45 million per year. They are killed because they can’t lay eggs and don’t grow enough muscle to be raised for meat.

This cruel and unnecessary practice is called 'hatch and dispatch'.

I was therefore astonished to discover that the ‘reliable, accurate methods’ set out in the AWC’s report are here, and have been for some time, making the 45 million deaths of baby chicks completely unnecessary.

For some years now, egg producers have had access to technology known as ‘in-ovo sexing’. This allows the sex of an egg to be determined as early as day nine of incubation, long before a chick can experience pain.

The technology is proven and is in widespread use in the Netherlands, France, and Germany. In the case of France and Germany, its use is required by law. We want to see in-ovo sexing technology introduced in the UK, which is why the Vegetarian Society has just launched a campaign to ban ‘hatch and dispatch’.

Polling shows 74% of the British public, when made aware of hatch and dispatch, also want it banned. In fact, 76% of us would pay more to buy cull-free eggs if made available. The good news is that a simple change to the existing law can ban hatch and dispatch.

Additionally, because almost all of the eggs supplied through our major supermarkets are laid by hens sourced from just two large hatchery companies, this hugely reduces the infrastructure and investment required. Today, banning hatch and dispatch and installing in-ovo sexing technology would add less than a penny per egg to production costs – a price only 5% of the population would be unwilling to pay.

In this country, we are rightly proud of our championing of animal welfare. A majority of us, 61%, usually or always opt for free-range eggs, higher welfare meat, or choose wild over farmed fish. We’ve been resistant to importing lower-welfare animal products from overseas.

So, we have a choice. We can either ignore this pointless cruelty, fall behind our neighbours in Europe, and slip further away from being the nation of animal lovers that we believe ourselves to be, or we can live up to our values, ban hatch and dispatch, and enjoy kinder, better eggs.

________________

Irene Campbell is the Labour MP for North Ayrshire and Arran.

LBC Opinion provides a platform for diverse opinions on current affairs and matters of public interest.

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official LBC position.

To contact us email opinion@lbc.co.uk