That's me and my little baby chick, Chanel, about 5 years ago. Chanel was one of the sweetest pets I've ever had - she followed me around everywhere because she had imprinted on me and thought I was her real mother. She'd nuzzle up to my neck like she is in the picture all the time. She would curl up in bed with me and lay on my chest, right up under my chin to keep warm. She was even better at going to the bathroom on a puppy training pad than my dog Coco! I loved my little chick, but I quickly realized that living in a bathroom is not the best habitat for her, so I took her to a farm where injured birds are taken care of and other random birds are cared for.
Every year, 9 billion chickens are raised for their flesh and 245 million are raised for their eggs. Chickens are believed to be the most mistreated animals in the farming industry. There are currently no federal laws in place protecting chickens from abuse, and it certainly shows. 99% of chickens in the farming industry live their entire lives in complete confinement. They don't get to run around and enjoy the grass and sun and the simple pleasure of open space. Many people don't realize that chickens are very inquisitive animals with unique personalities, much like common household pets like cats and dogs.
Chickens raised for their meat, called broilers, are generally put into "broiler sheds," packed by the thousands, immediately after their birth. Here, disease is rampant and many chickens die of illnesses. Their bodies are often left in the sheds to rot, where other chickens can easily become infected by the same disease that killed them. Broiler chickens are fed massive amounts of food and are injected with hormones so that they are so large, their legs buckles and break under their weight. Once this has happened, those chickens often die from dehydration because they can't maneuver themselves to their water sources. Other large chickens will die from heart attacks and organ failure because their size increases too quickly for their organs to keep up. The chickens that do survive their first 6-7 weeks of life are packed into trucks and shipped off to slaughterhouses. There, they are hung by their feet upside-down, and dragged over mechanical blades that cut their throats. Then their bodies are submerged in scalding hot water to remove their feathers. Millions of chickens miss the throat-cutting blades and die by drowning in the hot water tanks, and almost all chickens are completely conscious when their throats are cut because birds are exempt from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act which requires animals to be shocked into unconsciousness.
Broiler sheds where chickens used for meat are raised.
Hens that are used for their eggs are confined in cages by the hundreds where they urinate and defecate on each other. They never get to experience walking on grass; instead, their lives are lived standing on the wire grids of their cage floors. These chickens' pointy beaks are clipped off, which is a very painful procedure, in order to prevent injuries caused by arguments between the hens. After they've become exhausted and their egg production slows down, they are generally shipped off to slaughterhouses to be killed for use in cat and dog food because their flesh is not good enough quality for human consumption. Male chicks born from laying hens are almost always killed because they have no use for the farming industry - they cannot lay eggs themselves, and they are not bred to be fattened for meat. They are often ground up alive, suffocated in plastic bags, or gassed with pure CO2.
These are the types of tiny cages laying hens are housed in their entire lives.
This is a young hen that will be used for egg-laying having her beak cut off.
A dumpster full of day-old dead male chicks that have been gassed with CO2. So sad.
Companies are starting to finally take notice to how horribly chickens are treated. Many companies are now using cage-free eggs. Cage-free means that the laying hens are free to roam, spread their wings normally, and lay their eggs in nests the way they would in nature. Don't mistake cage-free for cruelty-free, though. While certainly the living circumstances for laying hens are better in cage-free farms, there are still issues. Cage-free laying hens' beaks are still cut off, and the hens are still usually bought from hatcheries where male chicks are killed immediately after birth. Cage-free hens are generally slaughtered after only two years of life, which is how long hens raised in cages generally are permitted to live, also. So even though cage-free is certainly an improvement, there is still a long way to go before chickens' living conditions could be considered quality.
Some of the companies that have either switched partially or completely to cage-free eggs include Kraft, airline Virgin America, cookie maker Otis Spunkmeyer, Royal Caribbean and Carnival cruise lines, Sara Lee, IHOP, Subway, Hellmann's mayonnaise, Wal-Mart's private line of eggs, Red Robin, Wendy's, Denny's, Burger King, Wolfgang Puck's restaurants, Ben & Jerry's, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Wild Oats.
Just last year, California passed a law requiring that all eggs sold in the state to come from cage-free farms by 2015, giving the farmers plenty of time to make the necessary changes to abide with the law. Ohio has also put a moratorium into place, preventing the construction of new battery-cage factory farms. Michigan also requires that all battery-cage factory farms to become cage-free by 2019. Slowly but surely, laying hens will get to live cage-free across the country (though I wish it would happen much more quickly).
After having my own sweet little pet chick, I can't understand how anyone could possibly treat them so horribly. They're such interesting, funny, and affectionate animals that don't deserve to be abused and stuffed into cages. Please visit The Humane Society or PETA for information on how you can help end the suffering of these innocent animals. You may just be one person, but just taking a stand for these animals who cannot help themselves is a good start. And who knows, you might influence someone else to take a stand, too. I'm not saying everyone has to be vegetarian or vegan because that's certainly not a lifestyle that everyone can live with. But just because you may eat meat, doesn't mean it has to come from an animal that lived a painful, cruel, abusive life.
