Comic: These kids refuse to breed chickens in class

The science So cool, but some teachers use less-than-cool “science” lessons, such as hatching projects where fertilized eggs are placed in an incubator until they hatch.

These projects are supposed to teach children life cycles, but eggs come from hazardous locations such as commercial hatcheries where male chicks are killed (which are considered useless to the egg industry as they cannot lay eggs). After the hatch project is completed, the surviving chicks are usually thrown outside or sent back to the hatchery, where they are likely to be killed so as not to accidentally transmit the disease to other chicks.

In our comic, the student asks the teacher why they would use a virtual incubator instead of hatching real chicks, and the teacher asks the students to imagine what it would be like to be a chicken hatching in class. Try to imagine it and see what you think!

Kind children know that animals are not tools in the classroom and that they have their own needs and reasons for living, and participation in a science project is not one of them! Chickens love their families, talk to each other and take care of their children, but they cannot be with their family or have freedom when they are locked in a classroom and sent to a hatchery.

With so many better options than using real animals such as learning resources, Cornell Lab Bird Cams, Chicken Talk The Egg: A Photographic Story of Hatching– there is no reason to hurt animals in a classroom lesson.