FACTORY FARMING: Chickens
There are only two sorts of chicken as far as farmers are concerned: those that provide eggs and those that provide meat. Due to genetic modification of the chickens over time, these two groups seldom cross.
THE EGG LAYERS
Conditions
Although the EU has agreed to phase out battery cages, these cages are still legal at present. One cage will house four chickens leaving each about as much room as an A4 sheet of paper. The wire floors cause foot damage and the crowding means that chickens suffer from a wide range of avoidable health problems including extensive bruising and injuries due to pecking. To prevent the regular damage caused by pecking approximately a third of chickens are routinely de-beaked using a hot blade.
Genetic and Manual Manipulation
Chickens are forced to lay far more eggs than would be the case in more natural surroundings - up to 250 eggs a year. Unnatural light cycles and various other techniques are used to extend the egg laying cycle.
Animal Welfare Issues include:
- Foot deformities due to the wire flooring of cages.
- Osteoporosis, because of the lack of exercise and the heavy egg lying burden which
means that chickens cannot take in enough calcium in their diet to compensate for egg-
laying. One in three laying chickens die from this condition.
- Extensive bruising due to overcrowding. Pecking injuries due to heightened levels of
aggressive behavior triggered by overcrowding. This is one of the reasons why laying
chickens are not passed on as first class chicken meat.
- An egg-laying schedule that turns them into “spent hens” within 72 weeks of them first
starting to lay, fit for nothing more than low-grade chicken products like soup and dog
meat.
THE MEAT PRODUCERS
Conditions
800 million broilers are bred each year for meat. They are kept crowded in their thousands in factory warehouses. The crushing and extreme growth stimulation results in a wide variety of physical and mental problems for these chickens. The unnatural overcrowding leads to a high level of aggression between birds and so these birds are routinely de-beaked and de-clawed. Genetic Manipulation
Chickens are selectively bred to ensure they reach slaughter weight in a mere 40-42 days. So accelerated is their growth rate that their skeletal growth cannot keep up with the growth of their muscle structure. The result is almost universal leg damage and lameness due to trying to stand on bones not built for their bulk.
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