Chicken Culling Problems

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,

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

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.

Instead the chickens decided to stand in a line in the entrance of the farm, with one hen holding a paper protesting, the hens do not seem very happy per the illustration. What is interesting is that the stool which the farmer uses to milk the cows is upside down and the buckets are also upside and stacked on top of each other. This gives an image of how the hens are switching the game, the stool and buckets are upside down because they are showing that there will be no supply of milk and egg. Another great representation of the empowerment the hens are trying to gain is that one of the hens is standing on top of the buckets showing that they will not give up and that they stand high for what they are protesting (page 13-14). This reflects a color of black, which represents the bad side of compromise in were things are not do peaceful and turn into physical protests. For example, the boycott of products or necessities such as milk and eggs for the story. Also, it can cause the decrease of a specific economy like the farm which can lead to the farm going out of business. Also, these chickens are the opposite from the cows; they did not stay still like the cows, instead they decided to show their

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

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

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).

Good Morning Everyone, Imagine in your head where the animal products you consume come from. You’ve probably envisioning acres of grassy farm lands with cows grazing leisurely in the open air, happy pigs rolling around in the mud, and chickens in cosy coops laying their eggs, right? Wrong. Farms like these hardly exist anymore. Instead, cows are kept pregnant to produce an abnormal amount of milk, pigs are raised in concrete cages inside windowless metal buildings, and two hundred and fifty thousand laying hens are piled in one, single building.

There is a large problem of animal cruelty linked to the food industry in the United States. Countless slaughterhouses, chicken farms, and other meat producers have been found guilty of harming animals and killing them inhumanely. This is something that clearly needs to change.

We also see how some people feel it’s cheaper to go to McDonalds or any fast food place and buy something from the dollar menu, then going to a super market and buying organic or even just healthier food, vegetables. But isn’t it better to spend a little more on good food now then spending more money later when we are being treated for Diabetes or Heart Disease. I was disgusted on food safety of factory farms, how crowded tens of thousands of animals are crowed together in tight conditions and they don’t get to do what they were meant to do. For example the chickens like to carry out normal behaviors such as grazing, rooting, and pecking. So since the chickens are in such tight conditions they peck on each other and hurt or kill each other, so some farmers have decided to just remove there peaks which is a painful procedure they have to live with. It is cruel and not fair to the animal. The biggest welfare problem for the chicken’s is associated with fast growth they promote fast growth by promoting antibiotics, which grows the bird at a really fast rate so fast that the little birds cannot handle their bodies and struggle with body function. A study at the University of Arkansas reported that if humans grew as fast as today’s chickens we’d weigh 349 pounds by our second birthday. The poor

The chickens are selectively bred and are given special drugs in the food and water to make the chickens grow incredibly fast. Because of the breeding and drugs, a lot of the chickens develop leg problems which make is sometimes impossible to walk and stand so they either can’t get to the food or they can’t reach the water. Also, because of the ammonia in the feces, the chickens often get the skin on their stomachs burnt because the ammonia is so strong and will just sear the feathers and skin. The ammonia is also in the air so it is hard to breath and just think of what is in the chicken that you eat on a daily basis. When the chickens turn 7 weeks old, they are transported to the slaughter house and are hung by their feet and on conveyer belts and they go past a blade that is supposed to slit the chickens throat while conscious which is incredibly painful but sometimes it misses so the chicken is thrown into boiling water alive and usually drowns while getting burnt. After that, the bodies are striped and beheaded and are cut up to be eaten.

Many years ago, backyard chickens were commonplace throughout the United States of America – mainly for nutrition. During that time, backyard chickens were easy to take care of and a small number of them could feed a family with meat and eggs for a bargain. Years later, manufacturing food became the way of life and

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

Poultry plays very important role for mankind through food supply, income and employment generation, providing raw materials to some industries, facilitating research works etc. Family poultry makes up to 80 percent of poultry stocks in low-income food-deficit countries (Pym et al., 2006) where owners raise poultry in small numbers ranging from single birds up to a few hundred.