Vegan for Life - Jack Norris [87]
Once the hens have been removed from the warehouses, the manure is plowed out of the buildings and new chicks are brought in to start the cycle again.
UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATIONS OF EGG FARMS
Michael Foods is one of the nation’s largest egg producers, supplying eggs to several national restaurant chains including Dunkin’ Donuts. In 2009, an investigator from Compassion Over Killing (COK) worked inside one of Michael Foods’ factory farms and documented numerous abuses:
• hens immobilized in the wires of their cages, unable to reach food or water
• decomposing and “mummified” corpses left in cages with live birds (who were producing eggs for human consumption)
• an employee decapitating a hen
• birds suffering from overcrowding, severe feather loss, and untreated injuries
Upon viewing the film, Dr. Ian Duncan, chair of animal welfare in the Department of Animal and Poultry Science at the University of Guelph in Canada, said that the conditions of the carcasses suggested that some birds had been dead in their cages for well over a week. The hens may have been unable to reach food and water and died slowly from dehydration and starvation.4
Over the following two years, MFA found similar conditions at two other large egg farms: Quality Egg of New England in Turner, Maine,5 and Norco Ranch in Menifee, California.6 Some of what they observed was typical for egg farms—birds confined in wire cages so tiny they couldn’t walk, stretch their wings, or engage in basic behaviors. But they also saw birds with bloody, open wounds and hens being kicked by workers into manure pits or being thrown into trash cans while still alive. In both places, workers were observed killing birds by swinging them in an arc to break their necks.
BIRDS RAISED FOR MEAT
Like hens who lay eggs for human consumption, “breeders” or meat chickens, and sometimes turkeys, have part of their beaks removed when they are very young.7 Farmers may also trim the bills of ducks (sometimes using scissors).8 The toes of turkeys are often cut off without painkillers to prevent scratching.9 In PETA’s investigation of Aviagen Turkeys, they found hens whose beaks were cut with pliers and birds who had collapsed and died of exhaustion or heart attacks.10
Birds may become lame and unable to walk because they have been genetically selected to grow abnormally large. A 2003 COK investigation of a chicken farm found chickens who could not walk due to leg deformities, as well as chickens trapped in the feeders. In studies on the effects of these deformities, lame birds are more likely than non-lame birds to eat feed that is laced with painkillers, an indication that they are in pain. The COK investigation also revealed that the levels of ammonia in the air were high enough to cause eye and trachea lesions in birds.11
PÂTÉ DE FOIE GRAS
Pâté de foie gras, made from the fattened liver of ducks or geese, is not a significant part of most American diets, but it is one example of the extreme cruelty that is legal in factory farming. To quickly produce fattened livers, ducks and geese are force-fed through tubes placed in their throats.
In 2008, an investigator from COK videotaped conditions inside Hudson Valley Foie Gras in Ferndale, New York. The video shows foot-long tubes being shoved down the throats of ducks to force food into their stomachs.12
PIGS
The majority of breeder pigs spend years in pens so narrow that they can’t turn around.13 They usually live on metal grates or concrete floors amidst urine and feces. Crated pigs develop repetitive behaviors like banging their heads against the cages and biting the metal rails. About 20 percent are killed each year due to lameness.14
The non-breeding pigs raised for meat live in somewhat less cramped quarters and can turn around. But conditions are still restricted and dark, and the air is filled with the scent of ammonia. Because of ammonia levels, respiratory problems are the leading killer of pigs grown for meat.15 Like birds, they are bred to grow faster than their bodies can handle, and many become