Lesson #1: Animals are Disposable Props for our exploitation

Scientists widely recognize that birds possess complex social structures and remarkable memories—clear signs of intelligence on par with many mammals. Anyone who has spent time with ducks or chickens knows that each bird has a unique personality, often shaped by their place in the pecking order. Some are bold and outgoing, while others are shy and cautious. Some seek out human companionship, while others remain wary or even a little feisty. Like dogs, cats, and humans, every chicken and duck is an individual with its own temperament, preferences, and quirks.

Yet in hatching projects, these intelligent, sentient beings are reduced to mere classroom tools—objects to manipulate for the sake of an experiment. Instead of fostering empathy, curiosity, and respect for life, these projects teach students the wrong lesson: that living creatures exist to serve human curiosity, rather than deserving care, dignity, and protection.

Lesson #2: BULLYING IS Acceptable

Teaching children to nurture chicks they will inevitably bond with—only for those animals to likely be killed later—sends a troubling and dangerous message: that it is acceptable to exploit and harm more vulnerable beings for our own temporary purposes. Hatching projects risk normalizing cruelty, undermining lessons about empathy and compassion, and contradict the anti-bullying values we should be instilling in young minds.

Lesson #3: Motherhood is Not Worthy of Respect

Birds form deep family bonds, maintain complex social relationships, and have a strong instinct to protect and value their own lives. Yet when they are used as classroom teaching tools, they are denied everything that is natural and essential to them. Even before hatching, chicks rely on their mothers, who carefully rotate the eggs up to 30 times a day to ensure proper temperature, moisture, and positioning. Eggs incubated artificially often fail to meet these critical needs, leading to sickness, deformities, or even organ damage from sticking to the shell. If eggs hatch on weekends or holidays when no one is present, the chicks may be left alone for hours or days, with no care at all.

Chickens communicate with more than 30 distinct vocalizations, and mother hens begin teaching these calls before the chicks even hatch. Sitting on her eggs, a hen clucks softly while the chicks chirp back from inside the shell, forming the first bonds of their lives. Denying animals the ability to form these natural connections—simply for classroom convenience—is cruel and undermines the very goal of education. True learning should inspire curiosity, respect, and empathy for life, not force animals to endure suffering for the sake of an experiment.

Lesson #4: Inconvenient Truths Are Acceptable Lies

Because keeping ducks and roosters is illegal in New York City and most Long Island municipalities, teachers and students generally cannot take chicks or ducklings home as pets—or even find them safe, permanent homes. Instead, most of these vulnerable animals are returned to suppliers, where they may be killed immediately to prevent potential pathogens from the school from infecting commercial flocks. This harsh is hidden from children who become attached to the developing baby animals. 

Lesson #5: Killing is conservation

Some teachers are misled into participating in hatching programs for pheasants and quails under the guise of “conservation education.” In reality, chicks raised by children are almost never equipped to survive. Most are quickly killed by hunters—the stated purpose of the DEC’s day-old chick hatching program, predators, or exposure, and many die from disease, deformities, or starvation. Non-native ringneck pheasants bred by the DEC are so fragile that over 90% die almost immediately after release. Even native bobwhite quails rarely survive beyond a few days, with urban sprawl, habitat loss, and domestic cats leaving wild populations all but destroyed. These so-called “conservation” releases are little more than a death sentence for vulnerable birds.

These programs not only divert millions of dollars intended for true conservation but also teach children the wrong lessons: that it is acceptable to exploit and abandon vulnerable animals for human convenience or amusement. True conservation means fostering respect, empathy, and protection for wildlife—not using sentient beings as disposable tools for classroom experiments or canned hunting. 

In 2025, Humane Long Island responded to urgent calls about injured and dying quails released by a so-called environmental group, CEED, stretching from the Town of Oyster Bay in the west to the Hamptons in the east. In one case, chicks from two hatching projects had been improperly incubated and were born with severe disabilities. One chick died en route to our facility, and another passed away within an hour of arrival. Fortunately, one teacher surrendered the remaining chicks, allowing us to arrange their responsible release on Shelter Island under the supervision of a licensed wildlife rehabilitator.

That same year, Humane Long Island recovered roughly 10% of the bobwhite quails released by the Town of Brookhaven in partnership with CEED. Some chicks were picked up by concerned local children whose parents called for help. One suffered a broken leg and head injuries after presumably being attacked by a cat and colliding with a window while trying to escape. The rest, abandoned and unable to survive without their mothers, likely perished shortly after release—completely undermining the supposed goals of tick control or ecological benefit.

These programs are not only cruel and wasteful, they also teach children the wrong lessons: that it is acceptable to manipulate, abandon, and exploit vulnerable animals for human convenience or amusement. True conservation instills respect, empathy, and protection for wildlife, rather than using sentient beings as disposable tools for classroom experiments or recreational hunting.

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that the threat of zoonotic disease cannot be underestimated. The National Institutes of Health estimates that around 60% of all known infectious diseases—and up to 75% of new or emerging diseases—originate from animals. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn that young children are especially vulnerable to illnesses carried by animals, making exposure to unsafe animal environments a serious public health risk.

Illness Close to Home

In 2022, a Long Island teacher reported that Cornell Cooperative Extension informed her the eggs provided for a classroom hatching project were “contaminated” and requested that the resulting chicks be returned to be euthanized. At a recent New York education conference, an upstate teacher revealed that her district ended its hatching projects after a salmonella outbreak was traced back to the classroom birds. In 2023, nearly 7,000 pheasants were killed at Reynold’s Farm—the facility where the DEC breeds day-old chicks for its program—after hundreds tested positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, a disease with a mortality rate nearly 100 times that of COVID-19.

Seattle Public Schools responded to these serious risks by banning all hatching projects. If schools across the country can take action to protect students and animals, why haven’t all schools followed suit?