Vegan for Life - Jack Norris [86]
The factory farming industry doesn’t deny the existence of cramped conditions. They are regularly depicted in industry journals and magazines where industry representatives insist that these conditions are not cruel and that they are necessary. Farmers insist that the system wouldn’t be viable if it didn’t protect the health and well-being of animals. But the truth is that letting some animals die due to overcrowding is more economical than allocating more space to keep them healthy.
2. Factory farms increase growth and production through genetics, hormones, and pesticides. Animals grow (or produce eggs and milk) at unnatural rates. This takes a toll on their bodies and many farm animals become injured, inflamed, or arthritic. After a few years of nonstop calf and milk production, dairy cows’ bodies are so abused that often they can barely walk. They sometimes have to be kicked and prodded to the killing floor.
3. Factory farms weed out slow-producing animals. Weak or sick animals may simply die in their cage or crate. But those who are not producing well may be sent to slaughter or are sometimes killed on the farm. Undercover investigations have shown some of these weakened animals being beaten to death.
EGG-LAYING HENS
The life of an egg-laying hen begins at the hatchery. Within minutes of emerging from their shells, male chicks are separated out and killed. In 2009, Mercy For Animals (MFA) went undercover at the world’s largest hatchery for egg-laying hens, Hy-Line International, in Spencer, Iowa. They found thousands of male chicks being thrown into grinding machines, which is a routine means of chick disposal. The tiny birds are tossed by a spinning auger before being torn apart by the high-pressure macerator. In other hatcheries, live male chicks are simply loaded into dumpsters and left to suffocate or die.
The female chicks have one-third to one-half of their beaks cut off. This keeps the chickens from pecking each other in the extremely cramped cages in which they will spend their entire adult lives. Their beaks are highly sensitive to pain and some studies show that the pain lasts for as long as five to six weeks.2
When they arrive at the warehouse, four to six (and sometimes more) chicks are placed in a cage that is the size of a typical microwave oven. They live on wire, which cuts into their feet and scrapes their feathers, and as they grow into full-sized chickens, the birds become so cramped that they can’t extend their wings.
With thousands of chickens living on a typical farm, no attention is paid to individual birds. Many die from dehydration or starvation if they become caught in the wires, if their toenails grow around the wires, or if the mechanized food or water delivery system malfunctions. Others die from inhalation of ammonia from the manure pits below the cages. Hens are bred to produce such large eggs that sometimes these eggs pull the tube they are supposed to move through right out of the hen’s body. This is called a prolapsed oviduct, and it results in hemorrhage, infection, and death.
Hens live in these conditions for one to two years or until their egg production begins to decline and they are removed from their cages and killed. If the hens have become stuck to the cages, they are ripped out, and because their bones are often brittle from high egg production and inadequate calcium, many of them suffer fractures in the process.3
Laying hens may be sent to slaughter, but they are often in such poor condition that they can’t be used by the food industry. On one farm, “spent” hens (as they are called by the industry) were tossed into a wood chipper for disposal.
Carbon dioxide gassing is the more common means of killing spent hens. Gas concentration of 30 percent or more is necessary to kill the birds, and research has shown that at this level, birds will feel pain and distress, probably associated with suffocation.