Philadelphia City Paper
Letters to the Editor

What You Say
Published: Jun 6, 2007

http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2007/06/07/letters-to-the-editor

Close the Hatch

We urge schools to stop chick-hatching projects and replace them with kinder ways to teach children about embryo development and the life of birds [News, "Chickens Belittled," J.F. Pirro, May 31, 2007]. Hatching projects encourage children to think that chicks come from a machine instead of having and needing a mother hen. They encourage children to want to bring more baby animals into a world already overpopulated with unwanted pets. They encourage the view that animals are disposable objects instead of living creatures requiring a lifetime of care and commitment.

Most schools do not even have a veterinary budget, even though many hatched chicks need immediate medical care. And chicks sent to the zoo are not "euthanized." They are fed, alive, to raptors and reptiles, and some zoos even store live chicks in refrigerators to await being fed to the animals.

Students can learn empathy and about the circle of life without hatching birds in the classroom.

Karen Davis, PhD
President, United Poultry Concerns