LIFE ON A FARM
So you're a female chicken! You are born onto a farm and well, we're going to need your eggs. First, you will be fed drugs that will genetically modify your body to produce about 250 - 300 eggs per year. Your body is only supposed to produce about 12 - 13 a year! Your beak will be cut off with a scolding hot blade. Why you may ask? So when you are placed into a tiny wire cage with about ten other hens, when you go crazy, you wont peck your own feathers and their eyes out! The over production of eggs and living conditions eventually cause you to get diseases and infections.
a. death
Up to 10 hens are packed together in one wire cage, often unable to spread their wings. Standing on slanted wire floors, the hens commonly suffer from foot and leg maladies, injuries, as well as feather loss due to physical and psychological stress. With cages stacked several rows high, is standard to keep up to 125,000 birds in the same shed. The crowded and unsanitary conditions create a build-up of toxic gases including ammonia (from accumulated feces) which is hazardous to the birds’ health and increases eye infections, viral infections, and upper respiratory tract infections. However, as long as eggs— the desired product, are being supplied, almost all chronic infections and diseases remain untreated. These wretched conditions are preferred by the egg industry, as both the cost of adequate care, sanitation, space, and enrichment for the birds can cut a major chunk into profits. (ERIN JANUS)
b. continue
Up to 10 hens are packed together in one wire cage, often unable to spread their wings. Standing on slanted wire floors, the hens commonly suffer from foot and leg maladies, injuries, as well as feather loss due to physical and psychological stress. With cages stacked several rows high, is standard to keep up to 125,000 birds in the same shed. The crowded and unsanitary conditions create a build-up of toxic gases including ammonia (from accumulated feces) which is hazardous to the birds’ health and increases eye infections, viral infections, and upper respiratory tract infections. However, as long as eggs— the desired product, are being supplied, almost all chronic infections and diseases remain untreated. These wretched conditions are preferred by the egg industry, as both the cost of adequate care, sanitation, space, and enrichment for the birds can cut a major chunk into profits. (ERIN JANUS)
b. continue