Poor chickens

[Tobi]

There's a commercial "barn-egg" facility just down my lane. My nearest neighbour. They recently cleared out the chicken sheds, and the muck is piled up by the sheds. Unfortunately we have an East wind, and the unbelievable stench is blowing through my house.
So I thought I'd post this because that constant stench is serving to remind me about those chickens, how they were forced to live, what they were living for, and what happened to them.

The smell is like a hundred dead bodies. There's no other word to describe it.

The chickens go into the huge barns as tiny wee things, they have plenty of room to run around, they have clean sawdust, they have food and water. The only drawback is they never see daylight. They have artificial lighting, and it is incredibly hot in there.
In a short time, the place begins to smell a little, the heat is close and not very pleasant, and they have less room to move because they all grow bigger. Soon they become crowded. Some die The workers remove the dead ones, but it takes time, and in the meantime, other chickens have to live among the dead bodies.
In a couple of months, the bins outside the farm stink of death, as those who don't make it end up in them.
They live like that, becoming increasingly dirty and increasingly crowded, for a number of months. At the end of this time (decided by people) they are deemed to have done their best work, and so are all killed. Their bodies go for pet food. They are only months old, under a year.

The muck piled outside the sheds right now is a mixture of dead chicken-parts, rotting in the sun, filthy "bedding" and feces.

Their job is to lay eggs. As many as possible, as large as possible, and in the shortest possible time. That's all.
For us.
Now the thing is, we wouldn't necessarily know, or think of the plight of those chickens, when we buy any store-bought cakes, or any store-bought mayonnaise....quiches...etc. And we could be vegetarian, and still be eating these things, and supporting farms like those without being aware.
We wouldn't know -because we haven't had any reason to find out....or don't happen to live next to a "barn-egg" factory. The quiche looks good, tastes good....and who can enjoy salad without mayonnaise? Birthdays have to have cakes. We buy cakes for treats for each other, or because we have visitors coming.....

I'm only posting this to open up a view to those chickens, their lives, their deaths, which exists behind the eggs which are used commercially in many different foods many of us -even vegetarians - buy regularly.

The only way to really opt out of this is to choose to eat vegan foods.

Even the smell of violet incense won't mask the reminder I get every breath I take right now -of those poor chickens.

Good point Tobi.

What about free range eggs, are they better aren't they? I get most of my eggs from a friend who keeps her own hens as pets. If I run short then I buy free range - never barn.

[LucidMoob]

I'm sad to sat Tobi that I used to do this job when I was a teenager. The farm I worked on used to grow chickens until they were 18 weeks old and then shipped them off to lay eggs for the rest of their lives. We had round about 7000 chickens on each floor (2 floors in each barn), we used to walk around daily to pick up all the dead ones as chickens are cannibals. They never got fresh hay ever in their 18 weeks at our place and never saw outdoor light except when they were getting transferred into the lorry to move out. Evil industry. People say that the holocaust was bad (and it was) but that holocaust happens every day all over the world for animals! 365 days a year!

And free range eggs Echalion...If they are from a local farmer or a friend with a few chickens then yeh I don't see the problem, they probs spend most their time outdoors and have a good life. But when I was working on the chicken farm the whole free range movement was kicking off here in the UK. Our head farmer got the paperwork through the post detailing the requirements for free range eggs. It said, and it may have changed now but doubt it, that chickens who are exposed to at least 30 minutes of sunlight a day can have their eggs sold as free range! So basically if you have a barn jam packed with chickens living in horrendous conditions everyday and you pulled back the roof for an hour a day, you could sell their eggs as free range! That idyllic image of chickens roaming around rich green pastures and popping out eggs doesn't exist as far as supermarket free range eggs goes...from what I've found out anyway. If you want free range go local and meet the chickens is my advice.

Personally I can't see the point of vegetarianism if you are doing it for the animals. If you love animals and don't want any part in their cruelty then vegan is the only way as far as shopping commercial is concerned. vegetarians usually say that its wrong to kills animals for food....but they can't give up eggs or cheese...well when a chicken cant produce another egg for you it gets killed...when I cows body is knackered because it has produced too much milk it gets killed.

Im a vegan now (kinda)...I think thats my karma balancing itself out somewhat after working on the farm!

[Tobi]

LucidMoob, I didn't know those things about supermarket "free range" eggs. So thank you. Not that I buy them.
I used to get my eggs from a lady down the lane who has truly happy chickens. But even so I read about a chicken's attachment to their eggs, and how, when they are taken from them, it encourages them to lay more....because whether they've been fertilized or not -to the chicken, that's her "brood"!
So I gave up eating them.

But today I went to buy some bottled water from a superstore, and just for a few minutes scanned around a few shelves, with the "eggs" thing on my mind. And saw so many products we wouldn't associate with barn eggs -or even worse -caged hens' eggs....but which will contain those eggs.
Cakes, cake mixes, fancy bread, ice cream, salad dressings, pretzels, noodles, doughnuts, waffles....literally hundreds of products.
Most people wouldn't even know the story behind the ingredients. They wouldn't even think those things contained eggs.

I asked the man at the farm where the eggs go to, and he said to a well-known cake manufacturer.

[LucidMoob]

Well done Tobi it seems that you have an open mind and can see the cruelty where other people sometimes cannot! The great thing that is happening now tho is that all those yummy foods that have eggs and milk in are now having clones made without them in, some are purposely vegan, some are trying to be 'health foods', and some just don't have eggs or milk in. So vegans or people just wanting to avoid eggs etc can find alternatives relatively easy! Oreo biscuits are vegan...that's my gf's latest n greatest finding lol

I've found it a long path to eliminating my involvement with suffering to animals...another thing I would suggest looking into, not because I want to push my beliefs onto you but because I want to end the animal suffering, is vivisection i.e. animal testing. Perhaps you know about this already. Again its like walking round the supermarket spotting foods that have eggs in, so many products, shampoo's, soaps, deodorants, drugs etc have been tested on animals. They live in bad conditions and often have a life of torture;

"Vivisection is the practice of animal experimentation. This can include administering drugs, infecting with diseases, poisoning for toxicity testing, brain damaging, maiming, blinding, and other painful and invasive procedures. It can include protocols that cause severe suffering, such as long-term social isolation, full-body restraint, electric shocks, withholding of food and water, or repeatedly breeding and separating infants from mothers. Essentially, it is using animals in ways that cause distress and/or death in attempts to test the safety of drugs and biological products or of finding treatments, prevention, or cures for human diseases. However, results derived from the animal model are not valid or relevant for humans. Tens of millions (some estimate in excess of 25 million) of animals in the U.S. suffer, die, or are killed each year in laboratories for biomedical experimentation, product and cosmetic testing, and for science education.

Imagine spending your entire life as a hospital patient or prisoner – this will only begin to approximate the life of an animal in a laboratory. Animals in labs live stressful, unnatural lives of daily confinement and deprivation. They spend their life in barren cages, unable to exert their will, make choices, or express their natural behaviors and needs. Most never experience fresh air or sunshine, only bars and concrete. The only changes in their lives come from invasive experiments, which range from uncomfortable to agonizing. And they are helpless to defend themselves."

http://www.animal-rights-action.com/...mentation.html

Sorry to bombard you with this Tobi but I feel I have to present this info to anybody that may be interested on behalf of the animals!

[LucidMoob]

Here's a very inspiring talk by a guy against animal cruelty... please watch, very informative!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es6U00LMmC4

[Belle]

Oh no.

Sometimes this forum makes my heart ache.

I've been living a smug little life of being free range eggs and yet they might not be.

I despair. Have to rethink.

Really.

Really really really.

I have no qualms about eating meat, I don't think I'm going to head in the veggie direction although I hardly eat meat because of not knowing where its sourced but I do have qualms about eating "unhappy meat". This will have to extend to so many foodstuffs now.

Bother.

But better to know to make positive choices as I don't want more than necesasry in terms of animals on my conscience.

[LucidMoob]

Sorry to blacken your fantasy of free range eggs Belle but the truth is the truth...just remembered as well that if barn chickens have 'access' to an outside area i.e. a door going to a small courtyard, they can be sold as free range also... basically the term 'free range' is a marketing coy to make more money! But there is bound to be a local farmer or person who has chickens running around their land and sells their eggs i.e. real free range eggs?

I guess, as some Buddhists etc. say, as long as you are fully conscious and aware of where your food is from and how it has been treated, then you can make the best choice for you and your journey. I personally eat vegan but have always said that if I were lost in the wild I would eat animals for survival. And I've always been sayin that if I knew a local farmer who sold proper free range eggs I would eat them. But after what Tobi said about chickens getting attached to their eggs etc I think I may have to rethink that, thank you Tobi for bringing that to my attention!

[Belle]

So yes, LucidMoob, it's about coming into the consiousness which is making me question my choices.

I have boundaries and lines. So, for me to buy an egg, now that I am conscious of the facts, then that is wrong.

But, if someone gives me a fried egg, it would be wrong to turn it down, nor am I going to demand people meet my requirements. I've been brought up with excessive politeness. Maybe it's an ego, I would rather offend myself than others.

No farms round my neck of the woods sadly. No more eggs for me.

Originally Posted by Belle

I have no qualms about eating meat...but I do have qualms about eating "unhappy meat".

Surely, all meat is unhappy. Even after the most comfortable life, having it cut short by the horrendous, inevitable trip to the slaughterhouse makes it so, doesn't it?