The Irony - End of Lay Hens & End of Day Glass

When I read this article I couldn't help but see the irony between what happens to "spent hens" used for their eggs and items made from left over glass. Both beautiful. Both fragile. Both "valued"... But their final fate so very different than each other.

The article posted at World Poultry states: 

Unlike broilers which [sic] are reared for meat and yield a valuable food product, end-of-lay (or ‘spent’) hens are considered a by-product of the egg industry.
Due to their low economic value, spent hens are unattractive to most poultry-processing companies. Thus, globally, the poultry industry is faced with billions of spent hens every year. The majority of poultry in commercial production are ultimately transported to processing facilities at the end of their commercial lifecycle. 

The article goes on to suggest better "welfare" measures to transport these "unattractive" birds to their slaughter... Well, anyone who knows the "commercial lifecycle" of male chicks and "unproductive" hens knows the bloody rest of it.

Don't you know if any one of us were one of these chickens nearing the finish mark of their "commercial lifecycle" we'd do everything we could to pump out one last egg for this Easter's festivities. Anything to bring a smile to the human faces that never see us. :/

From United Poultry Concerns

But here's one girl Ginger... 

She's the last in the small flock of "spent hens" that came to my care almost 5 years ago. She's watched each of her sisters enjoy their piece of life in the sun and earth and through the seasons... Their life-cycles were what they were born to have minus the end toll of human greed and gluttony. 

Ginger lost the last of her original flock about 6 months ago and like the others before her, her egg laying has been sporadic or non-existent for years. It doesn't bother any of us one bit! Her body isn't valued for what it expels but rather for she whose being possesses it. That is concern for her "welfare". Each morning that I enter my yard I'm thrilled to see her beautiful face! Only those who are unattractive wouldn't see the same!

If any reader here would love some alternatives to "Easter Eggs" This Vegan Life has some great resources. And of course throughout the year there are baking alternatives, Veggs, and other options. Not to mention what's coming in the future!

Like glass... Life is fragile. Handle with care. Please don't harm anyone when you can avoid it. 

The "Science" of Eggs

Here ya go folks... The "science" of eggs as demonstrated through common animal agriculture practices. Starving and gassing 50,000 hens - if not for the amazing rescue by the heroes at Animal Place.



And here's the real science of plant based Beyond Eggs:





Beyond Eggs ingredients include peas, sunflower lecithin, canola, and natural gums. In addition to being vegan, it's also gluten free and cholesterol free.   
More info on Beyond Eggs and here.
And don't miss your opportunity to sign up for a free sample!

File this under "Posts that write themselves"! :)

The Chicken, The Egg, The Cruelty - Billions Sacrificed

what is in your breakfast

if it ever cried, ever lived

and sadly, died

is not food at all

for food is meant to

sustain

not bring about suffering,

heartache or pain

Karen Lyons Kalmenson

Posted at Our Compass with the full story regarding the recent Mercy For Animals investigation into where McDonald's eggs (and all production eggs) are sourced. 

There is no system that can "serve" billions and billions without the sacrifice and bloodshed of billions and billions of others.

What Happens To The Male Chicks?

This study The Economics of Farm Animal Happiness rightfully says that there is an either/or scenario that eliminates the ability to be "humane"... That for profit - certain (most) animal industries MUST do things a certain way. 

"Sometimes it makes more economic sense to sacrifice the happiness of each animal, so that you can have more animals producing. Producers are not paid based on the number of eggs produced per hen, but rather on the total number of eggs coming out of the barn.”

Many attempt to eat only "cage free" eggs... But here are the USDA's standards for labeling FREE RANGE or FREE ROAMING: 

"Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside." 

In essence all this means is that if you are a hen inside one of these facilities - You're given the opportunity to fight your way through thousands of other birds to find the 2 x 2 foot opening that leads you to an exit into another fenced pen.  These exits may be arbitrarily closed for any reason and for any length of time for the "welfare" of the birds.  

The Truth About Free Range

And what happens after hens are no longer laying eggs is self evident:

If you are still eating eggs, dairy or meat - You'll find that these systems exist in every "food-animal" industry.  It is an inherent part of their economic profit... And "sacrifices" are made by everyone who's a part of it.
Sacrificed lives.  Sacrificed human decency.   

"Animal cruelty takes a million different forms and it takes billions of victims. What we do to the animals, we do to ourselves..." 

~Dr. Steven Best

I don't want to be treated as a drone or a widget... Or a consumption machine.  I want to be treated fairly.  With justice and respect.  And kindness. I don't want to serve or be "served"!  I have the choice... We all have the choice to refuse to participate in these bottom-line conveyor- belt systems.  But the victims... The ones who are units, given essentials but not comfort... Necessities but not freedom... Shelter but not safety... Care but not life... Cannot walk away and choose another course.  They are forced to endure to the bitter end.

If you've already made your decisions to change things for the better - I applaud you!  Now our message must continue till every cage is empty! Billions and billions of innocent lives are depending on us: 

Do not accept cruelty in any degree!  Go Vegan*

Farmed Animals - Caged Slaves - Surviving on Food and Water

We keep hearing from animal growers that they provide adequate food and water... It's always the water and food --- Food and water.  As if that's all that a living being needs or desires... Not so!


This vet talks about how vital access to fresh air, space, earth, dirt and insects are to these hens... And why their combs and wattles are so pale without them.  They were being deprived of that essential part of nature that everybody requires: Sunshine!



OPEN RESCUE: HENS
Imagine denying anyone of sunshine?!?  Certainly, no one has been raise to find this kind of treatment to animals acceptable.


5 hens rescued 6 months ago... What about the billions bred and killed since? - After a miserable life in the dark... 


If you're not vegan yet... Why not???

Invisible Birds - Forgotten Killing - I Only Eat a Little Chicken

"I only eat a little chicken."  I hear that a lot from those who still consume animals.  I think most of the time, their references are to their health... But it really is true - They do eat a little chicken. And even though today's modern "broiler" breeds are significantly larger than nature ever intended a chicken to be... They weigh a fraction of what a heron or sand crane would.  Yet the thought of killing or eating a snowy egret, swan or flamingo is repulsive to most. How bizarre to place a certain breed beneath the respect of other (prettier) birds.

I thought about that a lot when I read this article Conspiracies Don't Kill Birds.  People, However, Do.  The author laments the 5,000 blackbirds that died a mysterious death.  There is despair over habitat loss, pesticides, the hunting done by feral cats, death by vehicles, window glass, power lines, pollution, poisons, etc.  "That means that on average, 13.7 million birds die in this country every day."


But sadly lacking in this figure are the 9 to 10 billion birds callously classified as "poultry."  And by naming these birds as such they disappear from our sphere of consideration.  When people eat "breasts", or "legs" or "wings", the living being is forgotten as is the en mass brutalization of them.  More than 250 of them every second!


Each valued their lives.  All wanted to live.  None of these deaths are in any way "necessary" to human survival.   No thoughtful person would say they only ate "a little" cardinal, or sparrow, or robin... So I suggest a close examination as to why they think it's okay to eat only "a little chicken."  I did.  And I believe I am a more consistent and kind person for it...  

The Choice is in Your Hands

Please choose compassion.  

Thousands of Chicks Burned Alive in Poultry Warehouse Fire - Who's Responsible?

About 16,500 four-day-old chickens were killed when a Delaware poultry house caught fire.  If this does not bother you please proceed immediately to your spiritual adviser or mental health professional.  News flash: decent, emotionally alive people should care about this!  
For your conveinence I have provided a list of possible excuses one might use to "care" but not alter the buying/eating practices that cause such a holocaust of newborn innocent life:

1. It is necessary to eat eggs and chickens.
2. The chicks probably didn't feel a thing.
3. It was an accident.
4. This is the way "poultry" is grown.
5. These warehouses should have sprinklers.
6. This doesn't happen often.
7. The chickens/eggs I eat are "humanely" raised/killed.
8. I try not to think of it. 
9. I like the taste of chickens/eggs too much live without them. 

Now if one of these "reasons" (or one I haven't listed) is what you use to continue to eat chickens and eggs - Please leave a comment as to what flavor of morale dissonance you've selected.  I shall be more than happy to help guide you in a more enlightened direction.  

10,000 Chickens Burned Alive in Factory Farm Fire
Factory Farm Burns Thousands of Live Chickens
Turkeys Die in Fire - Inhumane Animal Agriculture
800,000 Chicken Inferno - Birds Burned Live - Factory Farm Hell

Are You REALLY Eating Eggs??? Didn't You See Those Poor Hens In The Video???

I don't want to promote "cage free" eggs... And there's much more than "factory farms" that I'm against...
But undercover investigations such as this must be part of the plan to expose the truth:



And the truth is... We don't "need" eggs... We don't "need" to imprison chickens (or cows, or pigs, or goats, dolphins, camels, lions, or any BODY) for our frivolous wants.  We just simply need to Go Vegan.



It's not that hard!  It's the morally right thing to do!  So what's stopping you???

Merry Christmas and RIP My Hen Liz - Go Vegan

Liz is gone. I went to let the girls out this morning and she had passed during the night... I kept telling myself through all these months that when she did go - I'd accept it so much better, because I knew she lived a good (long) life... (considering). Every chance I got I asked other "chicken people" about her breed... and when to expect her organs to fail - They were right... 10 months were all her body could endure. So I'm not really wishing a Merry anything to the evil industry or culture that made her into the "meat machine" that she was... So big she could hardly walk... Too big to roost with the others at night --- But her dear little chicken brain couldn't understand why not... We even built a "handicapped ramp" for her to get higher at night. Still after she waddled up, to get to her sleeping box, she'd moan and complain --- She so wanted to be with her flock. For her size she had the sweetest disposition. Her feathers were like velvet. She was the first baby "chick" I ever knew - (or lost). What a thing to have happen on Xmas eve... But I hope this short capsule of her life might be a "gift" to those who might sympathize with her story... and who might Go Vegan. Indeed - Liz was a "tough old bird"... And will be dearly missed.

800,000 CHICKEN INFERNO - BIRDS BURNED LIVE FACTORY FARM HELL

Here we go again. July 10th - Amarillo, Texas: "An area egg company is still counting its losses after a fire destroyed several of its buildings in Farwell. Cal-Maine foods estimates four hen layer houses were destroyed and a fifth has severe smoke damage. 800,000 birds died in the fire that started Thursday evening after five". And as horrible as being burned alive is... folks will still insist that the animal foods they eat are raised and killed "humanely". Because we are all civilized and good people, who would never allow innocent animals to be brutalized, burned or butchered... Without kindness - Without compassion. Right.... Other fires: Thousands of Chickens Burned Alive Factory Farm Infernos 25,000 Turkeys Burned Alive

UNITED POULTRY CONCERNS COCKFIGHTING RAID CHICKEN RESCUE

Thank you Karen Davis at United Poultry Concerns for recently adopting 60 chickens who were rescued during a rooster-fighting raid in Mississippi. Since 1990 United Poultry Concerns has been Dedicated to the Compassionate and Respectful Treatment Of Domestic Fowl. United Poultry Concerns addresses the treatment of domestic fowl in food production, science, education, entertainment and human companionship situations. Certainly if our feathered friends have a champion - it is found in the tireless advocacy and dedication of Karen Davis.

Toxic Animal Ag - Illinois River Poisoned by Chicken Manure

13 Arkansas poultry companies, are being accused of treating Oklahoma's rivers like open sewers. Proceedings are underway to establish whether or not Tyson Poultry and Cargill, amongst others, are responsible for 1 million-acres of the Illinois River Watershed being polluted with with bird waste. Take a virtual tour of what the inside of a factory egg warehouse looks like: Here's the story with bird litter. I know from keeping a small flock of rescued egg hens for almost a year... Chickens poop lots... constantly. Every place they stay for any period of time, has resulted in dead soil. Nothing, but nothing will grow inside their coop -All vegetation was killed to the root - within a few short weeks. The dirt will not even support worms -- 3 feet below. Dispersing the litter must be done very carefully or the ammonia will burn/destroy whatever it is applied to. The poultry and egg houses are claiming that the record level of fecal bacteria might be caused by other sources, including cattle manure or human septic systems. Oh let's see... billions and billions of birds... probably. Cows that poop 10 times more than humans... is very likely too- Septic systems however, is a desperate stretch. I'm putting my money on the one million acres of poisoned water shed is due to animal agriculture's filthy, flawed and failed practices. Time to evolve... Go Vegan Meat Poultry News

10,000 CHICKENS BURNED ALIVE FACTORY FARM FIRE

A variation of the post about the 100 dairy cows being burned alive...

This time it's 10,000 chickens burned alive in a Kentucky inferno - Only a few got out alive... http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=9514560

And then there were 1200 hogs burned alive in July...

And 1,000 before that in New Jersey

And 4,000 pigs lost in a fire on Nov. 21st...

Well... we could go on and on about caged animals being burned alive. But perhaps the most disturbing is this from another fire just last month. The blaze took the lives of some "rare and expensive" genetic line of pigs...

Wherein the farmer said "We feel we owe it to the pigs that died to keep going."

How about everyone do cows, chickens and pigs a real favor and stop breeding them and imprisoning them in the first place... Stop burning them alive (and dead) - Stop transporting them, selling them, slaughtering them and eating them (period).

We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form. –William Ralph Inge

ILLNESS FROM POULTRY TRANSPORT - EVEN IF YOU'RE VEGAN

Meatpoultry.com

"Driving behind the trucks transporting broiler chickens from farm to slaughterhouse provides potential human exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria from intensively raised poultry, according to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers. They found increased levels of pathogenic bacteria, both susceptible and drug-resistant, on surfaces and in the air

inside cars traveling behind trucks that carry broiler chickens.

This study was reportedly the first to look at exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria from the transportation of poultry. The findings are published in the first issue of the Journal of Infection and Public Health. Broiler chickens are typically transported in open crates on flatbed trucks with no effective barrier to prevent release of pathogens into the environment. Such crates do become contaminated with feces and bacteria".

So... even if I'm vegan I can't protect myself from the hazards of the meat industry? If such is the case, maybe outlawing the whole concept of "animal agriculture" might be in order.

And there's also this study on MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus ) A study investigated the prevalence of MRS in 120 retail meats from 30 grocery stores in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. S. aureus was recovered from 45.6% of pork and 20% of beef, whereas MRSA was isolated from six meats (5 pork and 1 beef). This is a health threat to farm workers, meat handlers ... and of course to meat eaters...

To be on the safe (and compassionate) side - try veg!