Dying baby chicks for Easter? wrong?

[dntd]

They inject the dye when the chicks are in the egg, the chicks don`t get harmed in anyway. I wanted super neat colored chicks but instead i got the super cool normal colored chicks, black and yellow is neat enough

 

[Whitehouse Quail]

I looked into doing it myself, by injecting the egg with dye before they hatch. Same procedure as vaccinating, and it isn't harmful/painful! Just thought it would be cool; they use it to mark waterfowl in the studies and stuff.

 

[77horses]

For the dye, I don't believe it's harmless if it's food coloring.


But around Easter is when they sell them publicly to anyone. And by anyone I mean anyone who can pay for them and whether they have any chicken knowledge or not. I think a lot of times why they sell them is because younger children seem to like cute, fuzzy baby animals, right? Especially baby chickens.

And when you mix that with pretty, colorful colors, such as pink, orange, green, etc. It's going to attract them more. And not only younger children. Adults will buy them too just because they look cute and would be a great Easter gift. True, but when the chicks grow up and loose their downy feathers, which means the dye will go away, and they turn into an adult hen or rooster, then the people who only bought them as a gift and had no knowledge about raising them will either not want them anymore because the cuteness has worn off or because they have gotten bored with them, or they won't be able to keep them because they don't know how to care for them, don't have anywhere to keep them, etc...So they end up geting rid of them somehow or neglecting them by not properly caring for them.
I heard a story about some people who bought a dyed chick as an Easter present for their kids, and they had no experience or knowledge about chickens. When the chick was small, it didn't eat much and took up very little space. But the chick got big, the dye wore off, and it turned into a full-grown rooster. The kids were no longer interested in it and the parents didn't want some rooster hanging around for no reason, so they abandoned him in a dumpster. Luckily, someone (a BYCer on here) found him and took him home and he was a great, handsome rooster who became part of the flock.
He was lucky that someone who had their own chickens found him. But some chicks that are dyed aren't so lucky, and that's what I hate about the dyeing and public selling of baby chicks, baby rabbits, etc. to random people. I completely don't mind with someone dyeing their own chicks just for fun and maybe for Easter, as long as it's not harmful to them and they aren't sold to random people who may or may not have any knowledge about chickens.

 

[moonlyghtegirl]

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Ding, Ding, DIng...we have a winner!

 

[americana-chick]

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That i do agree with. Yes, most of the people who buy these chicks will probably not want them when they are older and the poor chickens might have to suffer, but some people do have the plan for the chicks when they buy them. My aunt was planning on buying 2 baby chicks from the feed store (not colored because my feed store does not carry dyed chicks) and giving them to my younger cousins for easter, but thankfully she has made arrangments for when the chicks are older and they will be coming to live with me and enjoy the rest of their lives freeranging

MY little cousins will be very sad when the chicks go, but they will be able to come and visit the chicks whenever they want.
Now if only everyone would plan out something like this for those dyed chicks. It makes me want to go buy all of them and raise them myself so i know they will be treated right.