Save The Male Chicken (Actually Chick)

[james bond]

"Each year billions of day-old male chicks are killed in industrial grinders. CRISPR could change that.

We need to talk about chickens.

Wherever human beings exist on the planet, they are almost certainly eating chickens -- or chicken eggs. From Delhi to Beijing, Moscow to Oona-Woop-Woop, the humble fowl completes our roasts, soups and breakfast plates.

Fifty billion chickens are reared every year, but around 6 billion male chicks never make it past a day old. Hatcheries across the world wait for the boys to poke out of an egg, only to send them to their assured deaths: a high-speed, industrial grinder that instantly macerates them.

It's a gruesome fate, but it's currently the most economic and -- remarkably, some would say -- the most humane way to deal with these "useless" birds. An unfortunate truth of chicken biology: Males do not produce eggs. Any male hatched to be an egg-laying chicken is worthless, destined to die."

How CRISPR could save 6 billion chickens from the meat grinder

 

[OldLady]

"Each year billions of day-old male chicks are killed in industrial grinders. CRISPR could change that.

We need to talk about chickens.

Wherever human beings exist on the planet, they are almost certainly eating chickens -- or chicken eggs. From Delhi to Beijing, Moscow to Oona-Woop-Woop, the humble fowl completes our roasts, soups and breakfast plates.

Fifty billion chickens are reared every year, but around 6 billion male chicks never make it past a day old. Hatcheries across the world wait for the boys to poke out of an egg, only to send them to their assured deaths: a high-speed, industrial grinder that instantly macerates them.

It's a gruesome fate, but it's currently the most economic and -- remarkably, some would say -- the most humane way to deal with these "useless" birds. An unfortunate truth of chicken biology: Males do not produce eggs. Any male hatched to be an egg-laying chicken is worthless, destined to die."

How CRISPR could save 6 billion chickens from the meat grinder

We boil lobsters, don't we?

 

[OldLady]

Thanks to Lucy, my favorite chicken joke:

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

"Each year billions of day-old male chicks are killed in industrial grinders. CRISPR could change that.

We need to talk about chickens.

Wherever human beings exist on the planet, they are almost certainly eating chickens -- or chicken eggs. From Delhi to Beijing, Moscow to Oona-Woop-Woop, the humble fowl completes our roasts, soups and breakfast plates.

Fifty billion chickens are reared every year, but around 6 billion male chicks never make it past a day old. Hatcheries across the world wait for the boys to poke out of an egg, only to send them to their assured deaths: a high-speed, industrial grinder that instantly macerates them.

It's a gruesome fate, but it's currently the most economic and -- remarkably, some would say -- the most humane way to deal with these "useless" birds. An unfortunate truth of chicken biology: Males do not produce eggs. Any male hatched to be an egg-laying chicken is worthless, destined to die."

How CRISPR could save 6 billion chickens from the meat grinder

We boil lobsters, don't we?

So tasty.

 

[konradv]

The male chicken doesn't seem to be "saved" by this procedure, just terminated before hatching, instead of after.

 

[Blackrook]

3000 human babies are aborted in this country every day.

How Many Daily Abortions in the U.S.? - Love Will End Abortion

 

[OldLady]

^^^ I knew that was coming...^^^^

 

[Erinwltr]

3000 human babies are aborted in this country every day.

How Many Daily Abortions in the U.S.? - Love Will End Abortion

Make it to NY yet to publish your memoirs?

 

[james bond]

We boil lobsters, don't we?

There is a humane way to do it. Put it in cold water, cover, and heat to boil. The lobster goes to sleep first.

 

[james bond]

The male chicken doesn't seem to be "saved" by this procedure, just terminated before hatching, instead of after.

They can't be saved. It's just a more humane way of termination.

Humans fetuses are different.

 

[justinacolmena]

"useless" birds. An unfortunate truth of chicken biology: Males do not produce eggs. Any male hatched to be an egg-laying chicken is worthless, destined to die."

A baby male chicken cannot hatch unless a father cock has fertilized the egg.

Also, among avians, the mother's egg determines the sex of the chick, not the father's sperm as is generally the case among mammals.

Sex chromosomes are different for mammals and birds:
XX = female mammal
XY = male mammal
ZW = female bird
ZZ = male bird

Reptilian sex is temperature-dependent and determined at incubation time; some of that reptilian temperature dependence has carried over to mostly warm-blooded mammals who must keep their testicles cooler than the rest of their body in order to reproduce.