the chicken and the egg

As promised in the previous post on the All Creatures Great and Small campaign, I thought I'd take the opportunity to take a closer look at the poultry industry.  Speaking of eggs, in the U.S. the vast majority of them do not come from cage-free or free-range chickens, but are produced through industrial farming.  In dusky warehouses rank with dust and the smell of ammonia, more than 280 million chickens are literally cooped end to end in battery cages so small they can't even spread their wings, let alone "engage in many of their natural behaviors, including nesting, dust bathing, perching, and foraging" (Humane Society of the United States' No Battery Eggs campaign).

While chickens would otherwise "form friendships and social hierarchies, recognize one another and develop a pecking order, love and care for their young," instead they're reduced to production units, seven to eight in a single cage.  And millions of male chicks who are only 24 hours old are destroyed each year, most often macerated alive, "because they are worthless to the egg industry" (PETA, "Poultry and Eggs").

Remaining chicks have the ends of their beaks shorn off without anesthesia so they won't aggressively peck each other into non-production in such tight quarters.  They suffer broken bones and problems with their feet, walking on wire for their entire existence.  And hens are encouraged to produce more eggs through "forced molting," which "shock(s) hens’ bodies into another egg-laying cycle by starving them for days and keeping them in the dark."  There's more, unbelievably, and the above only goes for egg-laying chickens.  More than 9 million individual and sentient "broilers" are also raised for meat, in conditions which are hardly any better (PETA cntd., also see fact sheet notes).

The following is part one (10 min.) of Wegman's Cruelty, an excellent film by Compassionate Consumers which presents a look at the egg industry in a very moderate and poignant way.  Parts two and three are also available on YouTube, and you can read an excellent review of the film by my friend Brianne Donaldson.

(photo copyright 123rf.com)

Comments

[Adam Durand]

Thanks for the mention. My new documentary will be released soon at FowlPlayMovie.com.

[Ben DeVries]

Thank you, Adam (who, by the way, was the driving force behind "Wegman's Cruelty), and I'm looking forward to seeing "Fowl Play" become available. I was truly impressed by the tone, trajectory and overall quality of "Wegman's Cruelty."