Egg laying hens are arguably the most abused animals on today’s factory farms. More often than not, they are confined so tightly to wire cages that they cannot stretch their wings, clean themselves, turn around, or exhibit any of their normal behaviors at all. They are subjected to toxic fumes from the pools of waste that lie beneath them, and they are roughly handled by factory workers.
There have been countless investigations of egg farms conducted by animals rights groups in the United States, and each time we see the same things: dead hens in cages with live ones, birds who have lost their feathers from stress, and egregious abuse of these beautiful birds by farm workers.
Mercy for Animals recently conducted such an investigation of “Quality Eggs of New England” in Turner, Maine, and what they found is both disgusting and unconscionable, and yet, sadly, it’s not all that unusual:
- Rotting carcasses in cages with live hens still laying eggs for human consumption.
- Workers and managers killing birds by grabbing their necks and swinging them around in circles – an attempt to break their necks which often resulted in prolonged, torturous deaths for the hens.
- Supervisors and workers throwing live birds into trash cans, leaving them to be slowly crushed under the weight of other birds’ corpses and unable to access food or water.
- Birds suffering from broken bones, bloody open wounds, and untreated infections.
- Hens confined four to six in tiny wire cages so small they were unable to stretch their wings, move freely or engage in other basic behaviors.
- Birds trapped in the wire of their cages or under the feeding trays without access to food or water, some with body parts, including their faces, pressed against moving conveyor belts.
- Management and workers callously kicking live hens into manure pits where they either drowned in liquid feces or likely died slow and painful deaths from illness, injury or starvation.
And as these atrocities came to light, we got the same canned response from the farm owners and managers:
“Violations of…animal welfare standards will not be tolerated…“, and yet when the MFA worker complained to management about live hens being thrown into trash bins to die slowly, the farm owner’s son, Jay Decoster, told him that he shouldn’t worry about it and that “They all count as dead if they’re in a trash can.’ To me that kind of sounds like not only was it tolerated, but it was the standard. “They all count as dead if they’re in a trash can.” WHO SAYS THAT? A sick, sick person, that’s who. I wonder if he’d say the same thing if it were a bunch of sick puppies in that trash can?
I’m tired of the excuses – the whole “our farm has strict standards, and we care for our animals, and we would never tolerate these kinds of behaviors” – when really you know that they know perfectly well what’s happening in their barns. THEY DO. And people who tell themselves that it’s an isolated incident simply so they can feel okay eating eggs are deluding themselves, plain and simple. This is the standard, not the exception – period.
The last thing I want to point out is that Maine’s law does not specify how many hens may be kept in a cage, nor does it specify how chickens should be humanely euthanized. I am concerned that because of that, these people will never face the consequences of their actions. Then again, I’m no lawyer – hopefully this will at least bring some changes to the law. I’d like to think that no one could possibly argue that throwing live hens away constitutes any kind of humanity, but then again, the state of Ohio deemed that the Wiles Hog Farm was euthanizing pigs “humanely” by HANGING THEM. So I don’t have a whole lot of faith that the Decosters are really going to be punished appropriately.
Am I getting too cynical?
At any rate, kudos to Mercy for Animals for doing this investigation and bringing it to light. I sincerely hope something good comes out of it – whether that means more people give up eggs, or laws change – I’ll take whatever we can get!
This topic is so sad, it makes me want to cry each time…. 😦
HASE – I know, it’s so depressing, isn’t it?
STEVE – Good question, one that I think Steven answers quite well. Hopefully that helps!
STEVE – Thanks for the great comment & response to Steve’s question!
Are vegans pro-life?
Chickens and especially egg laying chickens are treated the worst! 95% of the eggs we eat come from changed birds– the egg industry recommends giving them slightly more than a piece of paper. Thats right off United Egg producers website… I can only imagine how bad they really treat them.
As for Steve’s question(nice name btw!), people have different opinions. As you may know, the far-right conservative Matthew Scully, George Bush’s and Sarah Palin’s speech writer is a vegan. He would likely say that the conservative ideal’s of pro-life needs to extend to all animals or it’s just not a true stance of pro-life.
There are also pro-life vegans who feel the way we treat animals is no way God would want you to treat the animals he created, who obviously feel pain. I don’t remember who said this, and it may have been Matthew Scully, but why would God, who created animals, give them the ability to feel pain if he wanted you to torture and kill them? What kind of sick God do you believe in? That is why a fair amount of Priests, Ministers, etc. are vegans or at the least don’t eat meat.
As for other vegans, I think it depends. Some have a stance that they believe once the fetus can feel pain(end of the 1st trimester), thats when it is wrong for abortion.
Other Vegan I would assume are extremely pro-choice.
It’s all personal opinion or beliefs– there isn’t a consensus in the movement. I suppose it depends on why your a vegan.
Hope that helps!
Yes, thank you Steve for the explanation and how it relates to vegan. I believe that pre-fall Adam and Eve were vegan and that only after the fall was pain introduced into the sustenance equation. Even post fall though, cruelty can’t be tolerated. As for the fetus, is pain the only consideration for respecting life? There are only two types of cells that contain 1/2 of a person, so it would reasonably follow that when those two meet, that a whole person is created. What they feel and what they look like or what state of development they are in is irrelevant.
When I was 15, we had a neighbor who had been born with some sort of condition where, in addition to some bone and muscle malformations, he felt no pain. When I met him he was about 8 and was covered with scars. When I asked somebody about them, they told me that some were accidental, but that he would sometimes allow kids to cut or scrape him – the most vivid was drag him behind their bike. Really, really sad, but by the time I knew him, he seemed like a happy well adjusted kid – given the circumstances. I guess my point in bringing that up is that *if* pain were the only consideration, the fact that he chose to allow others to harm him is not a problem is it? But I can’t believe anyone who respects life would condone that practice. I guess I feel that respect for life isn’t simply based on pain.
Thanks