Banning Backyard Chickens In The United States

According to Farm Sanctuary, the chickens, and the large barns they are raised in, are covered in feces. Even under these conditions, Perdue still believes they are healthy enough for human consumption (“Factory Farming”). Over the years, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has travelled around the country to protest with other disgruntled Perdue employees. During one of their protests at the Perdue slaughterhouse in Salisbury, Maryland, Ingrid E. Newkirk, PETA president, came across chickens dying from heatstroke in exposed crates. After further investigation, she found that if the chickens can’t handle the unethical conditions created by the employees and are dead, dying, diseased, or disabled, they will be thrown like lifeless beings into bins labelled “4D” (“Frank Perdue’s Legacy”). The awful fact of the matter is that most of the chickens are disabled as the majority of them suffer from broken bones. This occurs because of the rapid breast growth the company sets as standards for production. The number of hormones and antibiotics that the company infuses into the chickens makes them grow at abnormally fast rates. The normal chicken’s life span is about ten to fifteen years (“Frank Perdue’s Legacy”). Perdue typically slaughters its chickens once they reach the age of two months. At this age, their breast size is approximately the same as a ten-year-old

Imagine never seeing the real sun. You’re stuck in this cage with artificial lighting for your whole life. Until one day you finally get to go outside. Only to be sent to a slaughterhouse. The first day you get to see the sun will sadly the last. This is the shocking reality for most caged hens, not to mention the outrageous conditions they are kept in. These conditions impact on their health majorly. In addition to non-caged eggs actually being better for you. Caged eggs should be one hundred percent outlawed.

Mr. Ellis chicken coops are considered a substantial interference with an individual’s enjoyment of the individual’s property.

Factory farming is a practice that is used to keep up and sustain the supply and demand for different types of animal meat. A poultry factory farm that will be discussed is Perdue Farms. Perdue Farms is established and operated in the United States and has a processing facility where they raise and slaughter chickens. Perdue Farms is meeting the needs of the consumers by supplying and mass producing poultry for consumption. One may view this of being a success by having a well-established, profitable business that is fulfilling their responsibilities to the consumers. While that may be true, they are not fulfilling their ethical responsibility to the animals. These animals are in close quarters where they are nested in urine and feces. There can even be instances where they will be sitting on or near deceased chickens until their cage is chosen for slaughter. Since these animals are massively produced the use of hormones and antibiotics are used to sustain life and growth. On top of the poor, dirty living conditions these animals are also giving additives that will eventually make it to the consumer. The process has an impact on those employed by the corporation and those who purchase products from them.

The living conditions of chickens are dreadful and appalling. What came first the chicken or the egg? Chicken farming is found particularly in the Southeast margin of the United States (“Factory Farm Map”). It is explained that, “chickens and hogs on factory farms have no access to the outdoors, fresh air or natural light” (“Factory Farms Map”). This exemplifies one situation of how chickens are poorly treated in the factory farms. In addition, even before the chickens are born, they are treated horribly. More than 125,000 to one million hens can be living in the same factory together (Hobson). Along with crowded living spaces, these animals suffer being “docked,” which means they are declawed and stripped of all teeth (Hobson). This shows how bad the conditions

Following the recent incident in a Melbourne suburb during which hundreds of chickens were illegally released from cages on a truck, writer Jo Smith contended in his opinion piece ‘Chickens Range Free’ issued on January 2009 that our actions towards farm chickens are both inhumane and brutal. The piece draws attention to us as the human species, the need to raise awareness, the desire to stop such inhumane treatment and to enact action by supporting the activists who freed the chickens in an attempt to encourage readers to feel a sense of empathy as an act which disadvantages both themselves and others. The opinion piece was also accompanied by a photograph, was published on a website and on the Opinion

Chickens used for egg production typically live in one of many battery cages crammed into a long windowless shed. Ten or more of these hens are packed together in a cage that is about the size of a drawer in a filing cabinet. This causes frustration and fighting between the hens. To keep this from happening, farmers often cut or burn part of their beaks off without medicine to dull the pain. Hens who become sick are usually not given proper veterinary care and are left to die slowly and painfully. Some of the eggs laid by the hens are hatched by another industry to supply more chickens for egg production. Since the hatched male chicks cannot lay eggs, they are often killed by grinding or suffocation. When the hens grow old and stop producing as many eggs, many farmers will deny them proper nutrition to try and “shock” their bodies into laying eggs one last time. Then they are slaughtered and their bodies are used for food scraps.

Katherine Mangu-Ward and representatives from The National Chicken Council (NCC) were vocal in their rebuttals. Mangu-Ward believes that Pollan’s idealistic view of transformed American and world agriculture is suited only for the luxury classes. It is improbable to expect the masses to spend exurbanite amounts of money on organic local produce. This is an understandable concern. The lack of labor required to supply the country with enough foodstuffs and the potential loss of choices concern the NCC. The NCC agrees that the system is not perfect but nor is a local supply chain which would be unable to provide consumers nonnative fruits and vegetables. With regard to the rearing of chickens the council asserts that there is no evidence of antibiotic resistance, the flocks are kept healthy and safe, and inexpensive. Local sustainable methods are assumed to be impractical for national production, requiring vast swaths of land and excessive carbon emissions. Not to mention the expenses. Straying from the current system presents many economic and social challenges. Do these difficulties undermine the conceivable

It’s problematic that we don’t question the food we eat whether it be from McDonalds or a fancy upscale restaurant. We need to be more aware of what is going on around us especially when the food we eat is causing an array of health issues for us. The unsanitary conditions found within the factory farm industry contributes to the pathogens found in the meat we eat. As the saying goes you get what you pay for. Factory farming is based upon producing large quantities of meat at a very low cost. This driving force behind the system is not worth getting food poising or something detrimental. In the chapter “Influence / Speechlessness” the habitats of the chickens are displayed “jamming deformed, drugged,

During the summer before I started first grade my dad brought home some baby chickens for me and my little brother. We built them a cage so they wouldn’t run off to the neighbor’s house or so a coyote would not find them and kill them. We never could figure out why but all expect for about three of the chickens out of about twenty or so survived most of their lifetime. I think a black

There are two categories for these birds. Chickens raised for eggs are called “Layers” and those raised for meat are called “Broilers.” A chicken’s fate has a lot to do with its gender. Male chicks have no economic use since they cannot lay eggs and not genetically bred for meat. They are basically waste products and must be removed. “They are crushed, gassed, or discarded in trash bags to suffocate, or simply piled one on top of another, to die from dehydration or asphyxiation” (Compassion Over Killing, 2011). According to People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), more than 100 million of male chicks are killed every year.” (PETA 2011).

Chickens have to endure suffering that no living thing should have to go through. The egg laying chickens have to be forced into tiny cages without enough room to stretch their wings. Up to 8 hens are crammed in to a cage that is the size of a folded newspaper, about

Poultry is by far the number one meat consumed in America; it is versatile, relatively inexpensive compared to other meats, and most importantly it can be found in every grocery store through out the United States. All of those factors are made possible because of factory farming. Factory farming is the reason why consumers are able to purchase low-priced poultry in their local supermarket and also the reason why chickens and other animals are being seen as profit rather than living, breathing beings. So what is exactly is factory farming? According to Ben Macintyre, a writer and columnist of The Times, a British newspaper and a former chicken farm worker, he summed up the goal of any factory farm “... to produce the maximum quantity of

A chicken coop can easily attract all types of pests and critters. Repelling coop critters naturally can be done if you know the best methods to use on your

Backyard poultry rearing also finds an important role to raise indigenous birds free of stress and harmful residues (Khandekar 2003, Mandal et al. 2006).