POULTRY CRUELTY

Who Goes First?
If you only choose one, drop the poultry, not the beef 

Every day in the United States, over 20 million birds are abused, then cruelly killed, without ever getting the legal recognition as "animals." This is a serious crime, and one that would easily, with close examination of the practices, convince a person to go vegetarian. Many people, when considering going vegetarian for the first time, automatically opt to eliminate red meat from their diet over other animals. However, if the person is becoming vegetarian because they want to reduce the amount of lives they take--a common animal rights reason--the elimination of beef over poultry products isn't the right first step.

With a look at the numbers of lives being taken, it quickly become obvious that it is not the beef that should be the first to go; it should be the poultry. More than 7.8 billion birds a year are killed  for the human diet, but only 140 million cattle, sheep, and pigs. In a single year the average American will consume, among other animals, 1/7 of a cow, 1/3 of a pig, 1 turkey, and 30 chickens. Using this consumption rate, if a person eliminated beef and pork from their diet, it would save, over the course of a typical lifetime, about 7 cows and 20 pigs, a sure benefit, and a just reason. However, the elimination of chicken and turkey from that person's diet would mean many more lives saved, in fact, nearly 2 thousand more. This assumes that the consumption rate of the other sources of meat are not "accommodated for," and rise. If one eliminates red meat, but simply replaces it with an equal amount of chicken--as has been occurring for the last few decades--the number of lives lost will sky-rocket! The average (live) weight of a slaughtered chicken was 4.67 lbs, and for cattle it was 1,183 lbs. So, for every cow saved by switching from beef to chicken, more than 200 chickens will die.

Good science has confirmed the common sense belief that birds such as chickens and turkeys are totally capable of feeling pain. There is no reason to believe that the pain of a cow is greater than that of a bird, nor is there any reason to believe one is more important than the other. Using the same utilitarianism that Peter Singer used in his book, Animal Liberation, one sees that the numbers of lives involved necessitate an elimination of poultry first, if a person is going to eliminate only one thing at a time.

The production of eggs and poultry are undeniably cruel. Most people realize that the suffering for these animals is definite, but to what degree, people often have no idea.

Most of the eggs consumed in the United States come from the ever growing industry of the factory farm. In fact, 98% of the 250 million "layer" hens are raised in standard factory farm battery cages. There is no roaming, or time with the young, or any of the traditional farming methods employed at these factories.

Although a chicken's wing span is 32 inches, the battery cages in which these animals are confined are only 18 inches wide, and often contain 5-6 chickens. These cages are usually stacked on top of each other, forming long rows. The farmer's interaction is done through regulated conveyer belts: some take eggs and excrement away, some bring food and water. The floors of these cages slope in the direction of the food and water troughs, and as a result, weaker hens are often crushed at the bottom.

The resulting stress from this treatment is so much that they have been known to self mutilate and peck each other to death. The factory farmers, to alleve this problem, slice their sensitive beaks with hot irons, rendering it useless. Understandably, the machine that butchers the face of these animals creates sores that makes even eating and drinking a painful chore. As if this wasn't disturbing enough, when egg productivity drops, the factory farmer starves and dehydrates the hens to initiate a forced molt during which the chickens will shed all their feathers and loose 30% of their body weight before food is restored. This leads to a new period of increased egg production.

Currently, the unnatural treatment of these animals, which include genetic and chemical manipulations, have yielded birds that lay abnormal numbers of eggs, averaging 250 a year. Compare this with the one or two clutches of, say a dozen per clutch laid by their wild counterparts. It is easy to see here why the birds are commonly plagued with reproductive problems, a result of trying to farm an animal like a plant, and depriving them of exercise: bits of eggs clog their oviducts, which in turn become inflamed and paralyzed. Eggs are formed that are too big to be laid, and uteruses "prolapse," a result of incessantly pushing abnormally huge eggs through the vagina of small birds.

Productivity is the name of the game. Because male chickens don't produce eggs and aren't economical for meat production, egg-producing companies suffocate or grind alive 280 million male new-born chicks per year. Hens, bred to be "super layers," remain economically productive for no more than two years, at which time they are sent to the slaughter house. Their natural laying span is fifteen to twenty years. After their (short) lifetime of intensive confinement and rapid egg production, their bones have become brittle due to osteoporosis. Some chickens become paralyzed and can no longer feed, starving to death. For survivors, more bodily harm comes when workers, driven by efficiency not gentleness, grab hens by any convenient body part in transfering them from the battery cage to the transport cage.

Although not raised in small wire cages, poultry raised for meat suffer some of the same cruelties. Housed in warehouses with tens of thousands of other birds, instead of flocks of less than 100 which would occur in the wild, chickens peck at each other, so the farmer debeaks them. The decades of artificial selection for rapid growth and excess meat has led to chickens whose legs can't fully support their extremely over-developed bodies. Consequently, chickens suffer from chronic joint pain and crippling leg disorders. Turkeys have been bred to the point that they can no longer mate naturally.

Currently, there are no federal welfare laws regulating poultry raising, transport, or slaughter in the United States, leaving the fate of these animals totally up to the farmer. For obvious reasons, the U.S. egg industry is completely opposed to humane slaughter legislation for poultry. Economics, not compassion, determines how poultry is treated.

Supporting this industry is supporting mechanized cruelty to animals. The amount of needless suffering is immeasurable, and is not compensation for the elimination of red meat from one's diet, or even second to eliminating beef. Poultry is the biggest problem, taking many more lives. From the sheer number of the animals used, in both chicken and beef, the priority, in my mind, rests with the elimination of poultry from one's diet. Surely the best option is to eliminate all forms of animal products from one's diet. However, for those just making the first step to a vegan lifestyle, free of cruelty and needless suffering, the elimination of poultry (and eggs) should be a first priority.

By  Michael P. Ryan (University of Vermont) in http://liberator.enviroweb.org/. The post was deleted. This copy was edited and adapted to be posted by Leopoldo Costa and  saved in May, 2002

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