Photo by Arthur Tseng

In my view, mandatory in-ovo sexing of chicken eggs is a policy animal activists should support, while not losing sight of their long-term goal of nonhuman liberation. For those who aren’t aware, male chicks serve no economic purpose in the egg industry, so they’re frequently ground up alive or suffocated in plastic bags shortly after birth. In-ovo sexing technology allows male embryos to be identified and destroyed prior to hatching, thus preventing creatures doomed to a miserable, brief life from coming into being.

On the question of animal exploitation, I’m an abolitionist who is open to pursuing welfarist reform, if I believe it is sufficiently impactful. However, for those who take a more rigid stance, it must be said in-ovo sexing does not fit neatly on one side of the divide between welfarism and abolitionism. Yes, in-ovo sexing reforms the egg industry. But, for the potentially billions of creatures affected each year, it’s not improving their treatment within an exploitative system; it’s stopping them from being born into the system altogether.

Mandating in-ovo sexing seems like one of the most sure-fire ways of reducing nonhuman suffering and premature death today. Unlike cultivated meat,........

© CounterPunch