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THE BASICS
Battery hens live in highly automated, windowless sheds containing up to 100,000 hens; they are cramped in long rows of stacked "battery cages." Up to 10 hens may inhabit an area of 2.33 ft sq. That is less than half the size of a sheet of A4 (8.5x11) paper per hen; they have a wingspan of 30-32 inches. Battery cages have sloping wire floors that prevent a hen from sitting, sometimes causing a hen's feet to grow around the bars leaving her immobile and starving to death. Battery cages have wire walls in which hens often get their head stuck, leading to a slow death of starvation. Battery hens are housed in flocks up to 1,000 times their natural size, battery hens are unable to establish a social hierarchy normal to free flocks. The size and nature of the cages prevents hens from spreading or stretching their wings. They are prevented the basic natural instincts of perching, scratching, roosting, dust-bathing, and nesting quietly.
Battery hens live in highly automated, windowless sheds containing up to 100,000 hens; they are cramped in long rows of stacked "battery cages." Up to 10 hens may inhabit an area of 2.33 ft sq. That is less than half the size of a sheet of A4 (8.5x11) paper per hen; they have a wingspan of 30-32 inches. Battery cages have sloping wire floors that prevent a hen from sitting, sometimes causing a hen's feet to grow around the bars leaving her immobile and starving to death. Battery cages have wire walls in which hens often get their head stuck, leading to a slow death of starvation. Battery hens are housed in flocks up to 1,000 times their natural size, battery hens are unable to establish a social hierarchy normal to free flocks. The size and nature of the cages prevents hens from spreading or stretching their wings. They are prevented the basic natural instincts of perching, scratching, roosting, dust-bathing, and nesting quietly.
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DEBEAKING
Debeaking is when hens are kept so close together they get frustrated so they are then caused to become aggressive and attack other hens.
A way farmers try to solve this it debeaking them.
Debeaking is when a blade or laser is used to lop off a up to two-thirds of the top beak and the tip of the bottom beak and it is done without anesthetic. Many hens die from shock, others may feel lifelong pain or suffer from a permanent reduction in feeding. Evidence suggests phantom limb pain, and tumors form in the damaged tissue of the amputated beak stump. In 1992, a poultry researcher at the University of Guelph in Ontario explained, "there is now good morphological, neurological, and behavioral evidence that beak trimming leads to both acute and chronic pain. Sometimes the irregular growth of beaks on debeaked birds makes it impossible to drink where a normal bird would have no trouble.
Debeaking is when hens are kept so close together they get frustrated so they are then caused to become aggressive and attack other hens.
A way farmers try to solve this it debeaking them.
Debeaking is when a blade or laser is used to lop off a up to two-thirds of the top beak and the tip of the bottom beak and it is done without anesthetic. Many hens die from shock, others may feel lifelong pain or suffer from a permanent reduction in feeding. Evidence suggests phantom limb pain, and tumors form in the damaged tissue of the amputated beak stump. In 1992, a poultry researcher at the University of Guelph in Ontario explained, "there is now good morphological, neurological, and behavioral evidence that beak trimming leads to both acute and chronic pain. Sometimes the irregular growth of beaks on debeaked birds makes it impossible to drink where a normal bird would have no trouble.
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GENETICS
In 1888 the average hen laid 100 eggs per year now they lay 257. Layer hens of the 1930s produced an average of 121 eggs a year. Through genetics, today's hens nearly double that figure. But apparently this is not productive enough, for poultry scientists keep trying to develop a 'superchicken' that will lay an egg a day" (Animal Factories, p. 43). This is wrong as when the scientists meddle with the genetics of the chicken it means many of the chickens are born with excruciating pain from deformations.
In 1888 the average hen laid 100 eggs per year now they lay 257. Layer hens of the 1930s produced an average of 121 eggs a year. Through genetics, today's hens nearly double that figure. But apparently this is not productive enough, for poultry scientists keep trying to develop a 'superchicken' that will lay an egg a day" (Animal Factories, p. 43). This is wrong as when the scientists meddle with the genetics of the chicken it means many of the chickens are born with excruciating pain from deformations.
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MALE CHICKS
Male chicks, who are of no value to the egg industry, are immediately killed. They are either tossed into garbage bags, left to suffocate or to be crushed, or are macerated in high-speed grinders. For the female chicks, after birth they are kept in grow out buildings for about 20 weeks. They are often kept in dark except at feeding times.
Male chicks, who are of no value to the egg industry, are immediately killed. They are either tossed into garbage bags, left to suffocate or to be crushed, or are macerated in high-speed grinders. For the female chicks, after birth they are kept in grow out buildings for about 20 weeks. They are often kept in dark except at feeding times.
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DRUGS Battery hens are fed hormones to make them grow quicker, they are exposed to pesticides. The egg industry adds antioxidants to chicken feed to lengthen hens' laying cycles. These chemicals inhibit the formation of peroxides during the birds' metabolic activities, which can damage and age hens' egg-producing calls and tissues. Poultry producers use arsenical compounds to speed growth, raise feed efficiency, and boost egg production" (Animal Factories, p. 68). "Some egg producers use power sprayers that roll along the aisles shooting mists of insecticides up through the cage floors onto the birds" (Animal Factories, p. 66). They get all of this yet they are denied antibiotics and medicine when they are ill.
DID YOU KNOW?
Life is so hard in the cages of battery farm that
25 percent of the hens put in the cages die during an average eighteen-month laying cycle.
Life is so hard in the cages of battery farm that
25 percent of the hens put in the cages die during an average eighteen-month laying cycle.
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some things the hens suffer
- A hen may be:
- immobilized by having her toes grow around the floor or
- by catching her head or wing in the bars of her cages.
- automated food and water machines are blocked then she will die
- the farmers don't allow the hens to scratch their toes on material and to prevent overgrowth some farmers remedy the situation by trimming the hens' toes without anesthetic.
- from feather-loss
- blisters
- tumors
- foot and leg deformities
- osteoporosis (eggshells come from the bones, and the bones became weaker and weaker as they are given drugs to make them make more and more eggs)
- Fatty Liver Syndrome
- Swollen Head Syndrome
- heat stress
- mash
- mold toxins
- mouth ulcers
- ammonia burns
- fractured bones
- and endless other diseases and deformaties
- Veterinary care is non-existent, as individual hens are considered cheap and expendable. Critically ill birds are thrown onto "dead piles."
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LIGHT
It didn't take poultry produces long to figure out that control over light meant control over production. Egg producers try to create the illusion of eternal spring by keeping the lights on a little longer each day. After about a year of this, the flock's productivity drops, and many producers use 'force molting' to revive it". The egg industry molts hens by starving them for up to 3 weeks. During the forced molt, mortality double each week. This process shocks the hens into another laying cycle. Force-molting has also been linked to higher rates of Salmonella.
It didn't take poultry produces long to figure out that control over light meant control over production. Egg producers try to create the illusion of eternal spring by keeping the lights on a little longer each day. After about a year of this, the flock's productivity drops, and many producers use 'force molting' to revive it". The egg industry molts hens by starving them for up to 3 weeks. During the forced molt, mortality double each week. This process shocks the hens into another laying cycle. Force-molting has also been linked to higher rates of Salmonella.
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how many birds die?
Losses from disease and stress run high in the caged layer house. Some producers told us with pride that the 'cull rate' - the percentage dead and dying birds removed from the cages each day - was quite low, that it ran between 1 and 1.5 percent each month. That seemed quite low until we realized it added up to a loss of 18 percent of the original flock by the end of the first year in the cages. In most cases, layer hens are kept in the cages for eighteen to twenty months or more. The cull rate generally increases as the birds age, but let's assume that it remains constant at 1.25 per month. We find that the egg industry is accustomed to losing about one-quarter of its birds by the time their short egg-productive lives are over" (Animal Factories, p. 25).
Losses from disease and stress run high in the caged layer house. Some producers told us with pride that the 'cull rate' - the percentage dead and dying birds removed from the cages each day - was quite low, that it ran between 1 and 1.5 percent each month. That seemed quite low until we realized it added up to a loss of 18 percent of the original flock by the end of the first year in the cages. In most cases, layer hens are kept in the cages for eighteen to twenty months or more. The cull rate generally increases as the birds age, but let's assume that it remains constant at 1.25 per month. We find that the egg industry is accustomed to losing about one-quarter of its birds by the time their short egg-productive lives are over" (Animal Factories, p. 25).
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LIFETIME
"Under natural conditions chickens can live as
long as fifteen to twenty years; in the modern egg factory, however, hens last
only about a year and a half."(Animal Factories, p. 6).
"Under natural conditions chickens can live as
long as fifteen to twenty years; in the modern egg factory, however, hens last
only about a year and a half."(Animal Factories, p. 6).
Hens may collapse
A hen's body may collapse from the exhaustion of frequent laying, or the hens in a shed may be determined to be "spent." Spent hens have no commercial value because their flesh is poor and their fragile bones break into the flesh during processing. These hens travel thousands of miles to slaughter, often to Canada, or are disposed of at the farm. Both transport and slaughter of laying hens is unregulated by the USDA, that hens suffer during transport through extreme weather conditions. "Imagine the suffering of chickens being trucked from, say, an egg farm in Arizona through the Arizona desert, 'where temperatures even at midnight in the summer are over 100 degrees outside, double that inside,' to slaughter in California, at least an eight to nine hour trip" (Prisoned Chickens Poisoned Eggs, p. 110).
A hen's body may collapse from the exhaustion of frequent laying, or the hens in a shed may be determined to be "spent." Spent hens have no commercial value because their flesh is poor and their fragile bones break into the flesh during processing. These hens travel thousands of miles to slaughter, often to Canada, or are disposed of at the farm. Both transport and slaughter of laying hens is unregulated by the USDA, that hens suffer during transport through extreme weather conditions. "Imagine the suffering of chickens being trucked from, say, an egg farm in Arizona through the Arizona desert, 'where temperatures even at midnight in the summer are over 100 degrees outside, double that inside,' to slaughter in California, at least an eight to nine hour trip" (Prisoned Chickens Poisoned Eggs, p. 110).
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Are hens electrically stunned before slaughter?
No, Hens are not electrically stunned prior to slaughtering as, "It is claimed that electrical stunning would inure a financial cost through carcass damage and rejection because of easily fractured bones. Others have pointed out that while it is true that electrical stunning of hens causes broken bones (on average two per bird), during the remained of the processing they acquire and additional four broken bones per bird reflecting rough handling, inhumane housing, and the processing technology itself" (Prisoned Chickens Poisoned Eggs, p. 120)
No, Hens are not electrically stunned prior to slaughtering as, "It is claimed that electrical stunning would inure a financial cost through carcass damage and rejection because of easily fractured bones. Others have pointed out that while it is true that electrical stunning of hens causes broken bones (on average two per bird), during the remained of the processing they acquire and additional four broken bones per bird reflecting rough handling, inhumane housing, and the processing technology itself" (Prisoned Chickens Poisoned Eggs, p. 120)
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Other instances of cruelty
There are many other instances of cruelty involved with factory egg farming. "During the winter of 1988-89, heavy snows hit the Ozark region of OK, MO, and northern AK crushing hundreds of poultry sheds and killing an estimated four million birds. Nearly every summer now we see news account of the deaths of millions of chickens and turkeys across the country as power failures stop the ventilating fans and birds mother, trapped in their own body heat" (Animal Factories, p. 33). Truck accidents and tornadoes also lead to mass death.
There are many other instances of cruelty involved with factory egg farming. "During the winter of 1988-89, heavy snows hit the Ozark region of OK, MO, and northern AK crushing hundreds of poultry sheds and killing an estimated four million birds. Nearly every summer now we see news account of the deaths of millions of chickens and turkeys across the country as power failures stop the ventilating fans and birds mother, trapped in their own body heat" (Animal Factories, p. 33). Truck accidents and tornadoes also lead to mass death.
"Hope' is a thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without words - And never stops - at all."
- by Emily Dickinson
DID YOU KNOW? Chickens are amazing creatures, they can predict something before it happens!
If this topic interests you look out for these books:
- development of brain and behavior in the chicken by Dr. Lesley J Rogers _
- Prisoned chickens, Poisened eggs by Karen Davis _
- Animal factories by David Kirby _
If you are thinking about getting chickens there is a very good option to adopt a ex-battery hen so click this link and end their suffering now!!
http://www.bhwt.org.uk/cms/re-home-some-hens/
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This is the conditions of a really good tescos battery farm... the really bad ones are too upsetting to post
Check out these ex-battery chickens first taste of freedom!