New York Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal has proposed a bill to ban schools in the state from using any animals in inhumane and unnecessary “hatching projects.”
Many kindergarten and elementary schools throughout the country purchase fertile eggs from suppliers and place them into classroom incubators to hatch. The eggs can be from a number of different bird species, including chickens, quail, ducks, and turkeys.
The purpose of the project is ostensibly to teach children about life cycles and developmental phases of these animals.
However, as addressed by NYS Assembly Bill A00058, there is innate cruelty in the process that shows blatant disregard for the lives and needs of the animals involved.
To properly comprehend the failures of these incubation projects, it helps to understand the intricate process taken to hatch a healthy chick naturally.
According to nonprofit organization United Poultry Concerns, a mother hen is hugely attentive to her eggs as they develop. Her body and chosen nesting environment create the ideal temperature, moisture, ventilation and humidity to incubate her eggs. She painstakingly and precisely rotates each egg up to 30 times every day during the three week period — an important process to ensure the embryos develop properly.
Around three days before they are ready to hatch, the embryonic chicks within their shells can hear the sounds of their mothers and have been known to respond to the alarm calls of a rooster. They begin to peep a few days before they emerge, to let the hen know they’re on the way. The mother hen and chicks communicate vocally during the time-consuming hatching process.
All the chicks hatch within a similar time period; almost immediately, they head off with the mother hen to explore their environment and pick up all the skills they need to survive.
Now contrast that with a sterile, artificial incubator environment. Perhaps the climate is right for development — assuming that there is no human error or power outage that sees the heat lamp go off outside of school hours, resulting in the death of the embryo.
If the eggs aren’t turned correctly and regularly, chicks die or become deformed, as their developing organs stick to the shell. Even overhandling of the eggs can have devastating effects.
Once hatched, the schools lack the resources to care for the chicks correctly. They are neglected, may not be fed for hours or even days, and end up being an unwanted, often disposable burden.
It is completely unnecessary to compromise the welfare and lives of innocent animals in an attempt to educate school children about biology; there are many more compassionate methods of achieving the same outcome.
New Yorkers, please help this important legislation pass by contacting your assemblymembers and urging them to support it. You can find their contact information here: https://nyassembly.gov/mem
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STOP THIS DISGUSTING STUPID SO CALLED TEACHINH METHOD. THE TEACHERS DOING THIS MUST LEARN HOW TO TEACH CHILDREN FROM BOOKS…NOT KILLING INNOCENT CHICKS….TOTAL DISREGARD FOR THE LIFE OF ANIMALS
When these imbeciles do this they are in fact teaching the children absolutely nothing because nothing about the whole process within the class equates to the reality of the chick in its mother’s care. Stupid educational system that fills in gaps with cruel, mindless, useless experiments instead getting teachers off their arses and actually teaching for a change. I would not allow my child to be party to any animal experiments in school. It’s getting to the point that decent parents will have to homeschool their children because of all the sordid things being taught in schools nowadays WITHOUT the parent’s authorisation.
I do remember in elementary school our teacher did this exact same thing. This was in Nebraska, I however do not remember what happened to the baby chicks after they hatched.
The world is still living in the Dark Ages when it comes to compassion and respect for animals.
So, schools are teaching our kids to be inhumane, neglectful, uncaring pieces of shit. Education taxes is paying for that. What bright teacher thought this was a great idea?
Learn this, why not teach without the expense of an innocent life. Why not make a profit without the expense of an innocent caged, chained animal. There is no thought of a precious life taken away, freedom taken away, once again, by a human.
JERK TEACHER …. MUST BE FIRED! NEVER ALLOWED TO WORK WITH CHILDREN AGAIN!
Yes…first chickens starve ..no food/water and then no home for any chicks that do survive.
BAN!
Please stop stop this
Cruel, Please ban doing this ! Very cruel !
This is a teacher of our children. Pull her license and jail for life!
NYState – that bill needs to be passed that hatching live eggs in schools is against all humane principles and against the law. Thank you.
so bad children doing this to eggs
Why was he acquitted. This is terrible.
This is not the way to teach the children the proper way of doing things.The children shouldn’t even be doing this project unless properly taught. Stop this immediately.
I totally agree with Council Member Rosenthal — one moral, compassionate humane alternative would be to watch a VIDEO showing real-life process of chicks hatching — NOT THIS, in the classroom.
PLEASE, STOP THIS CRUELTY!!!…….THIS IS N O T THE WAY TO TEACH CHILDREN…….
PLEASE PASS THIS! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Please stop chick hatching projects at school. Teachers do not have time to monitor and children don’t have responsibility of these babies.
They only teach them about the life cycle though because they never tell the kids about the death part. Babies of any kind should not be born in such a sterile and cold environment but should be with their mothers if they are mammals and that is natural for them. The entitlement of humans is appalling. I know too much so this is not news to me but I still get angry and disgusted.
Chickens are not mammals but like a lot of birds are among the best parents in the world. I agree with all you say. They should know about the whole cycle. Birth to death.
you are right, its pathetic that they are teaching kids about life cycles while also teaching them neglect, all creatures deserve respect and the teachers dont have a plan, these chicks are hatched and then completely neglected. that is disguisting, they are teaching cruelty.
I learned a lot about mother hens and chicks reading this article. And a lot about cruelty and neglect and indifference. I pray this practice can be banned in all institutions.
How come humans assume they are allowed to do what they like to animals?
What in the world is going on with our society? Till what day we will continue torturing animals and teach a new generation to do the same!! Shame of the person/ people who pass this project!! Go to the animal sanctuary and watch birds and other animals in their goid healthy and loving environment having babies ! This barbaric , sadistic experiment should be banned at every single school!!
Teaching “life cycle” has become an excuse for cruelty to animals. Geez! What a wonderful education – mishandling and abusing newbies! That surely makes our students well-rounded and grounded in knowledge! Forgive me for being totally angry at this way to teach. There is enough technology available that nests do not have to be robbed and the animals do not have to be tortured, and the students can STILL learn what they need to know. I know, because I am teaching my grandchildren about life cycle without destroying any of the creation to do it. Does NY need me to take on the task of teaching their students for them? Why don’t they stop this cruel & unusual punishment of living beings? Sounds like IRRESPONSIBILITY might be the major lesson the students are learning.
The idiots are indeed taking over. Linda B. Rosenthal is to be praised for standing up to them.
Please New York, listen to Assembly member Ms. Rosenthal.
This country is over run with all forms of cruelty – from the top down to regular people..
It hurts badly.
Thank you, New York Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal!
I hope that your bill passes through the House and Senate.
What a great thing to do!
I live in California with 10 rescued chickens, all dumped by humans in various ways. Some were ditched at the so-called “shelter” some were just turned loose in parks or streets. The school hatching projects are a complete travesty of cruelty and capricious disposal of animals. The “lesson” taught is that we can get rid of animals when we are tired of them. Several of my birds were “teacher cast-offs” since rarely does the teacher make any plan or connections to have homes for the birds once they are past the “fuzzy, cute” stage. This is about 2 weeks, max. As well, the chaotic nature of school classrooms is a poor environment for these fragile, tiny birds and kids can easily kill them with rough handling. There are MUCH better ways for children to learn compassion and lessons about biology. United Poultry Concerns has a teaching guideline called “Hatching Good Lessons” and it can be seen here
http://www.upc-online.org/hatching/
Linda B. Rosenthal is a savvy assembly member. Abusing birds in this way is tantamount to inculcating that birds are disposable and worthless, and such learned theory gets transferred to other animals like Easter chicks, Easter bunnies, etc. This is definitely a bill that needs to be passed for the sake of the animals. You rock, Linda!!