THE TRUE LIFE STORY OF THE BATTERY HEN


Day One Chicks are sexed at high speed. Unwanted male chicks struggle to survive amid egg shells and garbage in a dumpster behind a hatchery for laying hens. Since male chicks won't lay eggs, they are considered no better than trash. For every laying hen, there is approximately one male chick infanticide. This is a society that has no regard for the pain, suffering, and death of another living being. Every egg a person eats contributes to this suffering. Remember these things the next time you think about having eggs for breakfast.


The lives of male chicks have no value to an egg farmer. In this photo, unwanted male chicks struggle to survive amid egg shells and garbage in a dumpster behind a hatchery for laying hens. They were just thrown out with the trash. .


Day Two to Point of Lay

The young birds are reared in special cages, or on deep litter. Those 'lucky' ones initially allowed their freedom in deep litter systems suffer a cruel shock when, at around 18 weeks, they're imprisoned in battery cages - for life. Crammed in with many other other birds battery cages confine five to 11 hens. Each hen stands on a space smaller than an A4 piece of paper. Her only way out is to the slaughterhouse.


Debeaking / Beaktrimming.
Most chicks are debeaked, a mutilation involving partial amputation of the beak with a red hot blade. This is to minimise cannibalism in later life and can result in life-long pain.


A Year in Cages.


Most battery hens spend around one year in laying cages before going for slaughter. Some are force-moulted in readiness for a second year of incarceration. For their entire lives they stand or crouch on bare sloping wire, often suffering severe damage to feet and claws, always enduring discomfort and distress. Cages are stacked three, four or five tiers high (sometimes higher) and a typical cage for five hens measures 18" by 20" (45 by 50 cms).

The Cruelty of Cages.
In their natural state hens are active from dawn to dusk, walking, running, pecking and scratching in the ground for food, dust-bathing and nestbuilding - all behavioural patterns denied to the battery hen. Severely frustrated, caged hens turn to pecking at each other.

The Laying Ordeal - What Price Those 'Farm Fresh' Eggs?

Today's hybrid hens lay five to six times a week. Battery hens become highly stressed and aggressive during the pre-laying period because of lack of privacy and nesting materials. Konrad Lorenz, the renowned animal behaviourist, wrote: 'For the person who knows something about animals it is truly heart-rending to watch how a chicken tries again and again to crawl beneath her fellow-cage mates, to search there in vain for cover.' When an egg is produced, the vent(vagina) becomes distended, red and moist, attracting the attention of bored and frustrated birds. Vent pecking can occur, and even lead to cannibalism. In cages there is no escape!

Diseases of Intensification

Cages Promote Suffering. Many diseases and injuries go unnoticed in the gloomy, overcrowded cages. Birds in the top and lowest cages suffer most from neglect, being hard to see. Impacted eggs, prolapses and disorders of kidneys and liver plague battery hens, and Marek's disease (a form of cancer) takes its toll. Often, birds reach the point of death before farmers notice anything amiss. Worse, dead hens are left in cages for long periods while 'farm fresh' eggs roll past or lodge against the corpses.

Tumours.

Many spent hens have malignant tumours. In the dimly-lit cage conditions they're ignored, and many sick birds are loaded onto lorries to travel to slaughter. Are cancerous birds reaching the consumer?


Above: The other hen in the cage used the rotting body as a nest to lay her egg. Many eggs are seen on dead bodies. These can roll free and end up in our supermarkets.



Brittle and Broken Bones.

Cage conditions result in hens with bones so brittle they snap when catchers wrench them from the cages. An ex-poultry worker gave the following description of his daily tasks and the catching process: 'One of my jobs was removing dead birds. There was never any shortage. Due to poor light the bottom two tiers of cages were in darkness, and it was impossible to see if the birds were still alive. When the carcasses were removed it was often a matter of a skeleton head and a few bones. I once took part in the clearance of a ten thousand bird shed. Other lads were brought in from local farms and the torture commenced. 1 recall being shouted at for my gentleness. Birds were dragged from the cages by their legs. Four birds were carried in each hand end down, down the shed to the door. The noise was deafening, the smell was putrid. Legs, wings and necks were snapped without concern. As I now look back, the whole system is incredibly cruel. After saying all this, this particular farm was good as far as battery farms go. The floors were swept daily and precautions taken against disease and pests. I gave up work in the poultry industry after bad dreams at night.' Research at Bristol University has indicated that a massive 24% of battery hens suffer broken bones during catching.

Often nearly featherless 'spent' hens suffer greatly during transport to slaughter. Millions of battery hens travel great distances to slaughter, since only a handful of processing plants specialise in the killing of 'spent' hens. Often nearly featherless, they may endure journeys in near-freezing conditions while hot weather can cause death from heat distress. Others Slaughter houses fed thousands of live chickens into wood chippers It's an industry standard.

Slaughter. Most poultry are killed by electric stunning plus neck cutting. some laws requires that the birds are rendered unconscious by the electric stun until death occurs through blood loss. Research by scientists at Bristol University found that when a appropriate current was used, 98% of hens ended up with multiple broke bones. Bone splinters in spent hen meat present a problem for the food industry. A 'solution' is to reduce the electrical current, so fewer bones break. When this is done, battery hens may have their necks cut and even enter the scalding tank fully conscious. Spent Battery Hens are slaughtered at two years of age. The hens are processed into pet foods,soups, stock cubes, 'convenience foods' and baby foods, or used in the restaurant trade.