Death for All

A Nellie’s employee told visitors that birds are killed when their productivity drops. Admitting that the hens “deplete themselves of calcium” after laying approximately one egg every day for 13 months, he stated that the fragile eggs that they produce after this “leach into the profits.” He went on to say that at that point, the hens are considered “commercially not viable,” because “feed is expensive.”



“Hens who are used for commercial egg production physiologically cannot sustain the high number of eggs that they are forced to produce,” explains veterinarian Dr. Ingrid Taylor. “Calcium and energy stores are depleted as the chicken’s body tries to compensate for the unnatural demand of constant egg production. This leads to severe and life-threatening conditions.”





Cervical dislocation—separating the spine from the brain—is permitted by HFAC’s “humane” standards as a way to kill hens, and Nellie’s own website indicates that the company obtains chicks from hatcheries that “cull” male chicks. A typical killing method for them in hatcheries is maceration—grinding them up while alive and conscious.