TEXAS – “It just should not be done.”
Jim Dunlap, a Plano wildlife expert, is talking about a common and disturbing Easter trend – the dying of chicks orange and other colours before they hatch from their eggs.
“Next week, the week after Easter we will take in 30 to 40 of these, ducks and chicks,” he says.
Dunlap says the unnatural colors place the chicks or ducklings in a very precarious position.
“If put with other chickens, anywhere in the area of other chickens, they will be harassed and basically beaten to death.”
Dying chicks an unnatural color is a relatively simple procedure. All it takes is a little dye, a hypodermic needle and the egg.
“They can use any color in the rainbow,” Dunlap says.
Chicks often carry salmonella, a serious and potentially fatal germ. When they are dyed, chicks usually wind up in the hands of children.
“It is very dangerous because these animals just naturally carry salmonella in their gut and then it’s carried in their feces which wind up on their feet, and then you hand it to a five-year-old.”
Some 13 states prevent the sale of dyed chicks.
Texas is not one of them.
The best way to stop racism is to eat more chicken and get rid of them before they hate eachother.
