baby chicks dyed colors for easterI'm not sure who came up with the idea of dyeing baby chicks a rainbow of colors as if they were Easter eggs, but whoever it was sounds sick to me. Lawmakers in Florida who have made the practice completely legal? Even sicker. Yeah, apparently, this actually goes on. Approximately half of U.S. states have bans in effect on dyeing animals, but thanks to an overzealous dog groomer who wanted to enter a contest, Florida recently overturned their 45-year-old law that would prevent this from happening.

Animal activists are outraged, as they should be. The mere description of how chick dyeing works is enough to make anyone with a soul cringe: The dye is either injected in the incubating egg (uggghhh) or sprayed on the hatchling. Poultry farmers claim that it is harmless (as long as the dye is nontoxic), but please! How could that possibly be true?

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Even if the dye is actually nontoxic and it doesn't pose health problems for the poor little chicks, the practice itself makes it so these chicks are treated like disposable "playthings" -- not living creatures.

Sure, researchers use dye all the time to track birds, and teachers have dyed chick for classroom use to show students how feathers come in. But dyeing chicks just for the sole purpose of making them cute for Easter seems to take the practice to a whole new, disgraceful level.

There's nothing redeeming about using chemicals to mess with Mother Nature and dye a helpless animal for five seconds of fun. It's a cruel, unnecessary practice that should be halted ASAP. More power to the animal activists. We should all hope their call for justice is heard.

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Here's a video of what the poor little chicks look like "in person" at a pet store ...

Do you think chick dyeing should be banned?