The egg industry's currently engaging in a war on "useless" male chicks, who (duh) produce no eggs. And, like all wars, this one has casualties: cute, innocent, fuzzy, absolutely precious casualties.

Seriously, this video's messed up, so don't watch it if you have a sensitive stomach or don't want to feel incredibly guilty for eating eggs.

Now, a bit of explanation: the Chicago-based Mercy for Animals recently infiltrated Hy-Line North America's hatchery in Iowa, where the company, the largest of its kind in the United States, dispenses of about 200 million male chicks a year by tossing them into a giant grinder. It's really quite grotesque.

Hy-Line spokesman Mitch Head had little remorse, saying, simply, "If someone has a need for 200 million male chicks, we're happy to provide them to anyone who wants them. But we can find no market, no need." See? The free market breeds murder!

Hy-Line's hardly alone: the United Egg Producers and the Humane Society of the United States both admit this practice goes on across all the land and, sadly for the little chicks, there's no way around it. We would suggest these chicks be farmed and then used to feed people, but even that sounds callous and wrong. Still, it's so fucked up that it borders on absurd, but that's the way the world works. Sorry.

As part of its assault on Hy-Line and others, Mercy for Animals wants the egg industry to start affixing this label on egg cartons.

This image was lost some time after publication.