Hidden cruelty exposed
Matt Lillie
Issue date: 11/20/01 Section: Opinion
Imagine that you are in a small wire cage. The cage is smaller than an elevator. There are other people in the cage with you.
You are all packed in so tightly that you cannot move without pressing up against someone, and the wire is bruising and cutting into your flesh. You have been trapped in this cage for about 18 months. You are in a giant warehouse and your cage is not the only cage. There are thousands of other full cages, stacked beside, above and below you. A while ago, your baby brother was ground up alive, your mother was recently pulled from her cage, and her was throat slit while she hung from her ankles. Some of the people in the cages have begun to go crazy under these conditions and have killed other people in their cages. You know it is only a matter of time before you, like your mother before you, are pulled from your cage, hung upside down and cut open to bleed to death.
The situation described above is not just an imaginary one for billions of egg laying chickens — it is their daily reality. Billions of chickens today are trapped in very small wire cages. These cages, called “battery cages” are stacked in rows by the thousands in huge factory warehouses.
In each cage there are up to six egg-laying hens. Each bird has less than half a square foot to live, and as a result, they are constantly rubbing against each other and their wire cages. This results in extreme feather loss and bruising. In such unnatural and cramped conditions, they are unable to dust bath, preen their feathers, make nests, or even walk or stretch their wings and legs. Sometimes they become trapped in the cages by their heads, wings and feet and they starve to death in this trapped position. Their feet often become deformed and cut up from the wire cage floor, and they develop lameness, brittle bones, osteoporosis and muscle weakness. All the while, they are breathing in their own manure fumes in poorly ventilated buildings.
Under these conditions, they become physically and emotionally frustrated and depressed. They go mad and are driven to excessive pecking. The weaker birds are unable to escape, and are pecked to death. To combat this, the egg industry had developed a procedure called “debeaking.” When birds are debeaked, they have up to two-thirds of their beaks cut off with a hot knife. The knife cuts through bone, nerve and soft tissue, causing severe pain for weeks. Some birds cannot even eat after debeaking and starve to death. Debeaking makes it impossible for the birds to peck each other to death, resulting in greater profits for the egg industry.
You are all packed in so tightly that you cannot move without pressing up against someone, and the wire is bruising and cutting into your flesh. You have been trapped in this cage for about 18 months. You are in a giant warehouse and your cage is not the only cage. There are thousands of other full cages, stacked beside, above and below you. A while ago, your baby brother was ground up alive, your mother was recently pulled from her cage, and her was throat slit while she hung from her ankles. Some of the people in the cages have begun to go crazy under these conditions and have killed other people in their cages. You know it is only a matter of time before you, like your mother before you, are pulled from your cage, hung upside down and cut open to bleed to death.
The situation described above is not just an imaginary one for billions of egg laying chickens — it is their daily reality. Billions of chickens today are trapped in very small wire cages. These cages, called “battery cages” are stacked in rows by the thousands in huge factory warehouses.
In each cage there are up to six egg-laying hens. Each bird has less than half a square foot to live, and as a result, they are constantly rubbing against each other and their wire cages. This results in extreme feather loss and bruising. In such unnatural and cramped conditions, they are unable to dust bath, preen their feathers, make nests, or even walk or stretch their wings and legs. Sometimes they become trapped in the cages by their heads, wings and feet and they starve to death in this trapped position. Their feet often become deformed and cut up from the wire cage floor, and they develop lameness, brittle bones, osteoporosis and muscle weakness. All the while, they are breathing in their own manure fumes in poorly ventilated buildings.
Under these conditions, they become physically and emotionally frustrated and depressed. They go mad and are driven to excessive pecking. The weaker birds are unable to escape, and are pecked to death. To combat this, the egg industry had developed a procedure called “debeaking.” When birds are debeaked, they have up to two-thirds of their beaks cut off with a hot knife. The knife cuts through bone, nerve and soft tissue, causing severe pain for weeks. Some birds cannot even eat after debeaking and starve to death. Debeaking makes it impossible for the birds to peck each other to death, resulting in greater profits for the egg industry.
