Factory Farming: Chickens Factory Farming Poultry
I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Consider:
The natural life span of a chicken is six or seven years.
The original ancestors of chickens produced as few as twelve to twenty eggs each year .
Domesticated chickens originated from red jungle fowl, forest dwelling birds of south east Asia. Modern chickens despite selective breeding retain many of the natural behaviours of their wild ancestors.
Chickens contrary to popular belief are intelligent, more so than your cat or dog, and are inquisitive creatures. Researchers have discovered that they are good at solving problems. Chickens it seems are more clever in some respects than small children when it comes to understanding that recently moved objects still exist, a concept that small children do not understand. In their natural environment chickens recognise one another, they form friendships and develop social hierarchies. Chickens enjoy dust baths, more about this later, and roost in trees. They love and care for their young. In the wild they make nests to tend their offspring. The maternal instinct is strong in the hen, she bonds with her chicks before they are born by turning her eggs five times each hour while clucking to the baby chicks inside, who reciprocate by chirping in return both to their mother and each other.
According to Dr. Chris Evans, Professor of Psychology at Macquarie University, Australia.
“Chickens exist in stable social groups. They can recognize each other by their facial features. They have 24 distinct cries that communicate a wealth of information to one other, including separate alarm calls depending on whether a predator is travelling by land or sea. They are good at solving problems. As a trick at conferences I sometimes list these attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people think I’m talking about monkeys.”
Dr. Joy Mench, Professor of Animal Science at University of California at Davis says this about Chickens:
"Chickens show sophisticated social behavior….That’s what a pecking order is all about. They can recognize more than a hundred other chickens and remember them. They have more than thirty types of vocalizations."
Factory farming denies these intelligent social creatures a full and natural life, the natural behaviours discussed above are not possible in factory farms as you will see by reading the information below.
Most certainly of course a premature death awaits a factory farmed chicken in the abattoir, or indeed in any farming situation including free range, which most certainly denies them the basic right to live, a powerful instinct present in all creatures. All Creatures wish to live, the life of a chicken is as precious to him or her as your life is to you.
Chickens called broilers are factory farmed for meat, and hens, referred to as battery hens, for eggs. In the UK over 600 million chickens called broilers are raised and slaughtered every year for meat, 9 billion in the United States and approximately world wide 43 billion. In the UK there are 33 million chickens farmed for eggs, 75 percent are factory farmed hens, of these each year 3 million die of disease, that leaves five percent barn hens and thirty percent free range, but free range is not as cruelty free as many believe. More about this later.
Factory farmed Chickens, are raised for meat in hot ammonia filled windowless sheds in huge flocks numbering as many as 100,000 birds. The terms broilers and battery hens are used to describe poultry which is raised in this type of industrial high intensity farming
Although not kept in cages broilers have living space that is less than the size of an A 4 sheet of paper, on floors covered with a layer of litter that remains unchanged during the entire life of the bird, this means that they stand in their own excreta with the result of painful ulcerated feet and rock burns, these are black marks which are caused as a consequence of ammonia, the ammonia is of course caused by the litter which is not changed until the birds are slaughtered.
Their food contains growth hormones and antibiotics. This results in a rapid and unnatural growth rate and soon conditions become even more cramped. In addition the bird's misery is compounded as her skeleton is unable to support her unnatural weight. As many as 80 percent suffer with broken bones, consequently some become so disabled as a result that they are are unable to reach food or water and eventaully die of starvation, a long protracted and miserable death. The increase in the rate of growth puts enormous stress on both the lungs and heart. In addition disease spreads rapidly due to the close confinement of these overcrowded unhygienic sheds. Approximately 6 percent of birds die in sheds due to starvation and disease, salmonella being the most prevalent.
In natural circumstances chickens reach full adult size in about one year. Twenty years ago it would take about fourteen weeks, nowadays due to the above methods it takes half that time; within seven weeks at the most the bird reaches maturity and is than slaughtered. Unwanted male chicks approximately 40 million who are only one day old, who of course cannot lay eggs, are gassed shortly after birth and this applies also to male chicks produced in the free range process which many believe is humane. Although chickens when finally slaughtered are supposed to be unconscious before slaughter, the stunning is often inadequate and birds may be conscious when they are scolded in defeathering tanks or skinned or while their throats are cut. Even more horrifying, often baby chicks are minced alive and their remains used as fertiliser
Living conditions are even worse for battery hens who are kept in cages, again little more than the size of a sheet of A4 paper. As a consequence of such confinement chickens cannot carry out their natural behaviours such as dust bathing and scratching. Dust bathing is a way in which chickens clean their feathers. This natural behaviour which is so intrinsic to their nature is often attempted while so confined in cages even though of course there is no dust for them to carry out this essential and indeed pleasurable behaviour. This behaviour is called dust bathing because the chicken appears to immerse herself into a small indentation in the soil as though taking a bath. In factory farmed chickens dust bathing is impossible. As you can see from the photographs below, so tightly confined are these poor creatures that even moving is impossible. These crates are stacked so high and in such great numbers that dead birds are not removed and are left to decompose amongst the living. It is hell unimaginable.
I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Consider:
The natural life span of a chicken is six or seven years.
The original ancestors of chickens produced as few as twelve to twenty eggs each year .
Domesticated chickens originated from red jungle fowl, forest dwelling birds of south east Asia. Modern chickens despite selective breeding retain many of the natural behaviours of their wild ancestors.
Chickens contrary to popular belief are intelligent, more so than your cat or dog, and are inquisitive creatures. Researchers have discovered that they are good at solving problems. Chickens it seems are more clever in some respects than small children when it comes to understanding that recently moved objects still exist, a concept that small children do not understand. In their natural environment chickens recognise one another, they form friendships and develop social hierarchies. Chickens enjoy dust baths, more about this later, and roost in trees. They love and care for their young. In the wild they make nests to tend their offspring. The maternal instinct is strong in the hen, she bonds with her chicks before they are born by turning her eggs five times each hour while clucking to the baby chicks inside, who reciprocate by chirping in return both to their mother and each other.
According to Dr. Chris Evans, Professor of Psychology at Macquarie University, Australia.
“Chickens exist in stable social groups. They can recognize each other by their facial features. They have 24 distinct cries that communicate a wealth of information to one other, including separate alarm calls depending on whether a predator is travelling by land or sea. They are good at solving problems. As a trick at conferences I sometimes list these attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people think I’m talking about monkeys.”
Dr. Joy Mench, Professor of Animal Science at University of California at Davis says this about Chickens:
"Chickens show sophisticated social behavior….That’s what a pecking order is all about. They can recognize more than a hundred other chickens and remember them. They have more than thirty types of vocalizations."
Factory farming denies these intelligent social creatures a full and natural life, the natural behaviours discussed above are not possible in factory farms as you will see by reading the information below.
Most certainly of course a premature death awaits a factory farmed chicken in the abattoir, or indeed in any farming situation including free range, which most certainly denies them the basic right to live, a powerful instinct present in all creatures. All Creatures wish to live, the life of a chicken is as precious to him or her as your life is to you.
Chickens called broilers are factory farmed for meat, and hens, referred to as battery hens, for eggs. In the UK over 600 million chickens called broilers are raised and slaughtered every year for meat, 9 billion in the United States and approximately world wide 43 billion. In the UK there are 33 million chickens farmed for eggs, 75 percent are factory farmed hens, of these each year 3 million die of disease, that leaves five percent barn hens and thirty percent free range, but free range is not as cruelty free as many believe. More about this later.
Factory farmed Chickens, are raised for meat in hot ammonia filled windowless sheds in huge flocks numbering as many as 100,000 birds. The terms broilers and battery hens are used to describe poultry which is raised in this type of industrial high intensity farming
Although not kept in cages broilers have living space that is less than the size of an A 4 sheet of paper, on floors covered with a layer of litter that remains unchanged during the entire life of the bird, this means that they stand in their own excreta with the result of painful ulcerated feet and rock burns, these are black marks which are caused as a consequence of ammonia, the ammonia is of course caused by the litter which is not changed until the birds are slaughtered.
Their food contains growth hormones and antibiotics. This results in a rapid and unnatural growth rate and soon conditions become even more cramped. In addition the bird's misery is compounded as her skeleton is unable to support her unnatural weight. As many as 80 percent suffer with broken bones, consequently some become so disabled as a result that they are are unable to reach food or water and eventaully die of starvation, a long protracted and miserable death. The increase in the rate of growth puts enormous stress on both the lungs and heart. In addition disease spreads rapidly due to the close confinement of these overcrowded unhygienic sheds. Approximately 6 percent of birds die in sheds due to starvation and disease, salmonella being the most prevalent.
In natural circumstances chickens reach full adult size in about one year. Twenty years ago it would take about fourteen weeks, nowadays due to the above methods it takes half that time; within seven weeks at the most the bird reaches maturity and is than slaughtered. Unwanted male chicks approximately 40 million who are only one day old, who of course cannot lay eggs, are gassed shortly after birth and this applies also to male chicks produced in the free range process which many believe is humane. Although chickens when finally slaughtered are supposed to be unconscious before slaughter, the stunning is often inadequate and birds may be conscious when they are scolded in defeathering tanks or skinned or while their throats are cut. Even more horrifying, often baby chicks are minced alive and their remains used as fertiliser
Living conditions are even worse for battery hens who are kept in cages, again little more than the size of a sheet of A4 paper. As a consequence of such confinement chickens cannot carry out their natural behaviours such as dust bathing and scratching. Dust bathing is a way in which chickens clean their feathers. This natural behaviour which is so intrinsic to their nature is often attempted while so confined in cages even though of course there is no dust for them to carry out this essential and indeed pleasurable behaviour. This behaviour is called dust bathing because the chicken appears to immerse herself into a small indentation in the soil as though taking a bath. In factory farmed chickens dust bathing is impossible. As you can see from the photographs below, so tightly confined are these poor creatures that even moving is impossible. These crates are stacked so high and in such great numbers that dead birds are not removed and are left to decompose amongst the living. It is hell unimaginable.
Battery hens live their short miserable lives confined in
tiny cages.
The battery cage system is an arrangement of bare wire
cages, which are stacked on top of each other in rows.
Each cage houses several hens and each row may contain
hundreds of cages stacked at different levels. A nightmare
of misery and suffering.The photograph above shows hens
crammed into tiny cages which are stacked in endless rows
right to the ceiling, here they languish in filth and their own
excrement.
tiny cages.
The battery cage system is an arrangement of bare wire
cages, which are stacked on top of each other in rows.
Each cage houses several hens and each row may contain
hundreds of cages stacked at different levels. A nightmare
of misery and suffering.The photograph above shows hens
crammed into tiny cages which are stacked in endless rows
right to the ceiling, here they languish in filth and their own
excrement.
Often hens escape from their battery cages, but instead of
freedom they fall into the vast manure pits which lies beneath
their cages, where without food or water they will slowly die.
Dead and dying male chicks behind an egg hatchery A dumpster behind a hatchery for
laying hens is filled with dead and dying male chicks who are of no economic value to the
egg industry.
laying hens is filled with dead and dying male chicks who are of no economic value to the
egg industry.
Photographs courtesy of Farm Animal sanctuary.
Farm Sanctuary | Watkins Glen, NY 2
License under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic
More of farm sanctuary's photostream on flickr :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/farmsanctuary1/albums/72157603620097482
Farm Sanctuary | Watkins Glen, NY 2
License under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic
More of farm sanctuary's photostream on flickr :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/farmsanctuary1/albums/72157603620097482
In such cramped condition chickens become aggressive, pecking at one another and also self injure. To prevent this a painful and distressing procedure called debeaking is carried out, often without anaesthetics, during which their sensitive beaks are seared off with a hot blade. Laying hens and breeding flocks are debeaked sometimes twice: during the first week of life and sometimes again between 12 and 20 weeks of age. After this mutilation the the poor bird than suffers chronic pain.
In 1990 research, led by Michael Gentle at the Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics Research Edinburgh, Scotland, showed that experimentally debeaked chickens demonstrated chronic pain and much suffering following the operation.
"The avian beak is a complex sensory organ which not only serves to grasp and manipulate food particles prior to ingestion, but is also used to manipulate non-food articles in nesting behavior and exploration, drinking, preening, and as a weapon in defensive and aggressive encounters. To enable the animal to perform this wide range of activities, the beak of the chicken has an extensive nerve supply with numerous mechanoreceptors, thermoreceptors, and nociceptors [ nerve endings sensitive to mechanical pressures, heat and pain]....Beak amputation results in extensive neuromas [tumors] being formed in the healed stump of the beak which give rise to abnormal spontaneous neural activity in the trigeminal [threefold] nerve. The nociceptors present in the beak of the chicken have similar properties to those found in mammalian skin and the neural activity arising from the trigeminal neuromas is similar to that reported in the rat, mouse, cat and the baboon. Therefore, in terms of the peripheral neural activity, partial beak amputation is likely to be a painful procedure leading not only to phantom and stump pain, but also to other characteristics of the hyperpathic syndrome, such as allodynia and hyperalgesia [the stress resulting from, and extreme sensitiveness to, painful stimuli]."
Published in Applied Animal Behavior Science, Vol. 27,
Quoted in United Poultry Concerns, Inc.information sheet, debeaking
UPC Factsheet - Debeaking
In other words the beaks of poultry have an extensive nerve supply in order to equip them for the functions their beaks evolved to carry out, which makes this area highly sensitive to heat and pain. Furthermore the amputation of the beak results in extensive tumours being formed, this has an effect similar to that experienced in human amputees who suffer what is referred to as phantom pain perceived as coming from the limb which has been amputated. Debeaking also results in referred and increased extreme sensitivity to pain in general, which has both a physical and an emotional effect, such as stress and depression.
Battery hens are kept in constant artificial light to encourage egg laying, they never of course see daylight. Their claws grow too long and become caught up in the floor of the cage preventing them from obtaining food or water. As a result of the lack of exercise the bones of battery hens become brittle and often break. No one checks on their welfare of course, no one cares, these hapless creatures often in pain and distress are merely left to produce eggs as a machine produces plastic cups for instance. The mortality rate is high amongst caged battery hens, as much 6 percent.
Selectively breed battery hens produce over 300 unnaturally large eggs per year. Their original ancestors in their natural circumstances produced as few as twelve to twenty at the most! Imagine how exhausting this must be for these unfortunate creatures.
The enormous majority of chickens world wide are raised in factory farms. This is because to do so is more cost effective. More meat and eggs are produced at a lower cost and consequently a bigger profit. But with little regard of the cost to the unfortunate animals in terms of suffering.
Concerning Free range
It may appear to many that the lot of a free range bird is more natural, that it is cruelty free, that a hen lays her eggs in a natural manner until she dies of old age.
Nothing could be further from the truth however.
According to EU regulations free range hens are required to have continuous access to the outside during the daytime. The outside area is required to be covered with vegetation with 1000 hens to an hectare of outdoor space. But the reality is that they are usually kept in deep litter or barns. You may see some eggs labelled as being produced by woodland birds, these are birds kept in smaller numbers in mobile sheds in natural landscapes such as woodland.
In some ways of course the circumstances above are better than those for the battery hen, but do not be mistaken to think that these conditions are cruelty free! In both of these environments there are negatives which make free range not as natural and as cruelty free as many imagine. This includes myself until recently, that is until I understood the reality, after which after 16 years of being a vegetarian finally I became vegan.
The truth of the matter is that many birds never or rarely go outside as the flocks are too large, often as large as 16000 (confined in spaces of 12 hens per square metre), far them to do so; as many as 50 per cent do not have regular access to the outside. Some barns have only access to one side and with limited space, the requirement for the total opening between the barn and the outside must not be less than 2m per 1000 hens. It is quite easy to assume that many hens may never be able to push their way to the front, doing so may well result in aggression and subsequent injury, certainly only the fittest gain access. So their lives are not as natural as we may suppose.
Moreover the females do not live out their lives to old age, laying eggs naturally, scratching, pecking at the ground, having dust baths, nest-building and perching, and generally behaving as a chicken would do in the wild as many people believe. This is a misconception which the farming industry are only too happy for you to carry on believing, content for you to spend more money thinking that by doing so you are a cruelty free consumer.
Here is even more of the sad reality.
Free range chickens still lay nearly as many eggs as battery hens which amounts to about 300 eggs per annum, that's ten times more than is normal! And remember as already mentioned, in natural circumstances hens lay up to only 20 eggs each year. At the end of their egg laying lives the hens are killed at about one year of age, a chicken's natural life span is about six or seven years, for low grade meat, and the male chicks as already mentioned are killed at only one day old. Nothing natural or cruelty free about that is there! One of the most natural instincts of virtually all creatures, maternal instinct, a mothers instinct to care for her young, is denied the mother who never sees any of the chicks she gives birth too.
Like their factory farmed counterparts free range chickens are in some cases debeaked. As already described, debeaking is a very painful procedure; no painkillers are administered when the ends of their beaks are cut off with a hot blade
Another category of eggs we now see on the supermarket shelves are barn eggs. Although a little cheaper than free range many people again buy them with the assumption that they are cruelty free. The name 'barn is a term which is deliberately misleading the public into thinking the hens are kept in clean bright, airy conditions with fresh straw on the floor and plenty of room to spread their wings.
The designation "Barn eggs" simply means that the hens are housed in huge, often filthy windowless sheds, although not caged thousands of birds are packed into very cramped spaces, 25 hens per square metre, they have no access to the outside. Some have access to perches or raised platforms and the floor is at least partly covered with litter. Nesting boxes are provided but many birds are not able to lay their eggs in nesting boxes and instead lay them on the floor where other birds eat them and where they become contaminated by other birds faeces. For more shocking information concerning the treatment of Chickens refer to:
https://www.vegsoc.org/layinghens
If people knew how KFC treats its chickens, they'd never eat another drumstick.
Pamela Anderson
Chickens are of course not the only bird to suffer dreadful cruelty, the plight of ducks may in some cases be even worse.
Some of the above information for this webpage was gleaned from the websites below where you will find more comprehensive information, fact sheets and campaigns and actions you can take. The simplest of which and an action you can take immediately is to: stop eating meat, egges and other animal products. Advice about how to become vegetarian or vegan may be found here on this website:
So you want to become veggie /vegan?
Other related links on this website; Sentience in Farm Animal: Chickens
Also the websites below provide information and recipes.
References and Links :
United Poultry Concerns [UPC] - www.upc-online.org
Credits
Title photograph:
Hens in battery cages
https://www.flickr.com/photos/farmsanctuary1/2162612499/in/album-72157603620097482/