The breeding of chicks of egg-laying breeds is not considered profitable because, since they do not belong to breeds selected for meat production (with rapid growth and specific characteristics), they have slow growth and a lower muscle mass (they are not "suitable" for fattening).
The selection of livestock has led to such specialization and efficiency in the sector that the animal is considered a mere object of production.
For these reasons, male chicks are slaughtered on the same day as the chicks are sexed.
In Switzerland, since 1 January 2020, it is prohibited to kill chicks by grinding them alive, a practice called homogenization (see OPAn law, section 3, art. 20). Death must be given by gasification (carbon dioxide, CO2), but no form of stunning is mandatory. The chicks die inside rooms (or in special bags), by slow (and painful) suffocation.
The practice (undisputed over the last 50 years) of proceeding with the mass slaughter of healthy and young animals poses, first of all, a serious ethical dilemma and a practical problem due to the non-application of the law on animal protection (OPAn).
In Switzerland, between 2 and 3 million male chicks are slaughtered every year. In Italy, the figure is around 25 million chicks every year and in the whole of Europe, it is around 300 million.