An animal advocacy organization has made an undercover video shot earlier this year at an Iowa hatchery public in hopes of raising awareness to what it deems as “the shocking reality” of animal cruelty at large hatcheries.

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The video, shot by an hidden investigator, was made public today by Mercy for Animals, which is calling on the nation’s 50 largest grocery chains to require that all eggs they sell bear a new label: “Warning: Male chicks are ground-up alive by the egg industry.”

Recorded during May and June, the video was allegedly shot in Spencer at a Hy-Line egg production facility. A news release states that it “reveals chicks being thrown, dumped, dropped, hung, mutilated without painkillers, injured and killed by industrial equipment, left for days without access to food or water, and fully conscious male chicks being ground up alive.”

A statement by Hy-Line spokesman Tom Jorgensen indicates that the company is investigating the allegations made in the video to determine if there were any violations of the company’s animal welfare policies. The statement adds that the investigation could have been more effective if the allegations were made immediately after potential violations may have occurred.

“Following our investigation, if any violation of our animal welfare policies is found, the employee or employees involved will be disciplined per company policy, up to an including termination,” officials asserted in the statement.

The animal rights’ organization asserts that it takes issue not just with Hy-Line, but with the entire industry.

“The callous disregard for animal welfare at this facility is not isolated,” organizers wrote on their Web site.

“Egg producers have gone to great lengths to hide their cruel practices from consumers. Grocery aisles from coast-to-coast are stocked with egg cartons featuring idyllic images of free-roaming hens and roosters. These deceptive marketing gimmicks conceal the cruel and violent nature of industrial hatcheries and egg factory farms.”

As The Iowa Independent reported last year, Hy-Line was one of several Iowa companies that donated nearly $250,000 to fight a proposed California ballot measure that called for changes in livestock confinement laws. The donations — more than $30,000 of which came from Hy-Line — came under fire when they were not reported by United Egg Producers as required by state law.