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Battery Hens
Introduction
In the wild, chickens spend their days foraging in the grass in search of food, dust bathing in the sand, building nests and roosting high in the trees with their flock mates. Without human interference a wild chicken would lay one to two clutches of eggs a year (around 20 eggs), yet battery chickens are forced to lay up to 300 eggs a year! Additionally the average lifespan of a wild chicken is around 10 to 12 years. Chickens exploited for their eggs only live a fraction of this, usually about 18 months.
Journey to hell
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These days, chickens are treated like egg making machines. No consideration is afforded for these highly intelligent and social beings. They are crammed into small wire cages known as “battery cages”. Anxious and frustrated, they will spend most of their short lives standing on barren wire floors. This form of industrialised agriculture allows egg producers to confine thousands of hens in rows of tiered cages inside gloomy and ammonia polluted sheds. As many as five chickens are packed into one cage leaving each bird with less than an A4 size piece of paper in space (not even enough room to stretch their wings or exercise).
These horrendous living conditions cause the chickens to fight and peck their cage mates. To prevent this from happening, the sensitive ends of their beaks are cut off with a hot blade - a crude procedure that is preformed without anaesthetic, let alone any pain relief. Deprived of exercise, battery hens are susceptible to muscle wasting, brittle bones and crippling leg and foot deformities. The toxic ammonia generated from piles of chicken manure commonly causes respiratory ailments.
At the end of their suffering as egg production units, which is usually when their worn out bodies can no longer produce enough eggs to remain profitable, a new horror awaits them...the slaughterhouse! Terrified and often sick chickens are forcibly dragged out of the cages by their legs and shoved into crates. They are then packed onto trucks and transported through all weather extremes. Rough handling leaves many chickens with broken legs and other injuries.
Terrifying slaughter
At the slaughterhouse, their fragile bodies are shackled upside down and they are sent along a “processing line” where their throats will be slit. Many chickens are still alive when they are submerged in boiling hot water for feather removal.
Act Now
- Refuse to buy cage eggs. By boycotting cage eggs, you can make a powerful statement that this type of treatment of animals is unacceptable.
- Go vegan! Adopting a vegan lifestyle is the best way to take a stance against animal cruelty.
- Take a few minutes to talk with family and friends about the cruelty of egg production and encourage them to boycott cage eggs.
- Speak to the manager of your local shop or restaurant and encourage them to stop selling and using cage eggs.
- If you have some free space in your backyard, consider adopting a rescued battery hen.
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