Chicken Culling Problems

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

Never being able to stretch their wings or walk around again. Standing on wire floors which lead to serious health issues. Dropping there faeces to a tray below them which would rarely get cleaned. Until around 2 years later when they stop laying. No, they are not let out into open fields for the next 10 years of their life that they are capable to live. Instead, they are trucked to slaughterhouses. Many birds die within these 2 years, and survivors are often forced to live with their dead and dying cage mates. Hens can suffer in pain and agony caused by these appalling conditions, caged eggs should be completely

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

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

Every year, over 58 billion farm animals are killed by humans for food production, and this astounding number does not even include sea creatures. This is known as factory farming – the system of inhumane raising of livestock for the purpose of supplying food for human consumption in the cheapest way possible. It is argued that factory farming should be illegal and banned worldwide not only because of its cruelty towards animals but also because the low quality meat can produce harmful diseases and major health concerns to consumers.

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.

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,

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

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

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.

After being fed daily with antibiotics, the chicken are big enough to go off to the slaughter house. The only federal law in the United States, which first enacted in 1958 is the Humane Methods of Livestock Slaughter Act (HMLSA). That law was to protects farm animals and requires that the animals be rendered insensible to pain before they are slaughtered to ensure a quick, painless death” (Miller, 2010). Even though the chicken are shackled upside down and pass through an electrified water bath that is intended to immobilized them before their throat are slit, the process is so fast and ineffective that the chicken are still conscious when they are having their throat slit, their misery only end when they hit the

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.