Back to Animal Rights
The human
spirit is not dead. It lives on in secret.... It has
come to believe that compassion, in which all ethics
must take root, can only attain its full breadth and
depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not
limit itself to mankind.
Albert Schweitzer, Novel
Peace Prize address, "The Problem of Peace in the World
Today"
Poultry
"The U.S. Department
of Agriculture currently applies the Humane Methods of
Slaughter Act only to mammals (yet even excludes some of
them, such as rabbits), and refuses to extend these
basic federal protections to the nearly ten billion
turkeys, chickens, and other poultry raised for food
each year."
The humane
Society of the United States
I have included
information concerning the horrendous treatment of
poultry in factory farming here on one page. Poultry
have many things in common concerning their inhumane
treatment, however I have considered it more helpful to
discuss each species separately. You may simply scroll
down the page in the usual way to accesses information
about chickens, ducks turkeys and geese or you may
select specific species by clicking the appropriate
links below .
Most people
are vaguely aware of battery hens and their plight
however there is much more cruelty to which they and other
poultry are subjected and which you may find even more
shocking, if it was not shocking enough to confine
sentient creatures in tiny cages. For instance force
feeding for geese and ducks
I did not become
a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of
the chickens.
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Consider:
The natural life
span of a chicken is six or seven years.
The original
ancestors of chickens produced as few as twelve to
twenty eggs each year .
Domesticated
chickens originated from red jungle fowl, forest dwelling
birds of south east Asia. Modern chickens despite
selective breeding retain many of the natural
behaviours of their
wild ancestors.
Chickens contrary
to popular belief are intelligent, more so than your cat
or dog, and are inquisitive creatures. Researchers have
discovered that they are good at solving problems.
Chickens it seems are more clever in some respects than
small children when it comes to understanding that
recently moved objects still exist, a concept that small
children do not understand. In their natural environment
chickens recognise one another, they form friendships and
develop social hierarchies. Chickens enjoy dust baths,
more about this later, and roost in trees. They love and
care for their young. In the wild they make nests to
tend their offspring. The maternal instinct is strong in
the hen, she bonds with her chicks before they are born
by turning her eggs five times each hour while clucking
to the baby chicks inside, who reciprocate by chirping
in return both to their mother and each other.
According to Dr.
Chris Evans, Professor of Psychology at Macquarie
University, Australia.
“Chickens exist
in stable social groups. They can recognize each other
by their facial features. They have 24 distinct cries
that communicate a wealth of information to one other,
including separate alarm calls depending on whether a
predator is travelling by land or sea. They are good at
solving problems. As a trick at conferences I sometimes
list these attributes, without mentioning chickens, and
people think I’m talking about monkeys.”
Dr. Joy Mench,
Professor of Animal Science at University of California
at Davis says this about Chickens:
"Chickens show sophisticated social behavior….That’s
what a pecking order is all about. They can recognize
more than a hundred other chickens and remember them.
They have more than thirty types of vocalizations."
Factory farming
denies these intelligent social creatures a full and
natural life, the natural behaviours discussed above are not
possible in factory farms as you will see by reading the
information below.
Most certainly of course a premature death awaits a
factory farmed chicken in the
abattoir, or indeed in any farming situation including
free range, which of course most certainly denies them
the basic right to live, a powerful instinct present in all
creatures. All Creatures wish to live, the life of a
chicken is as precious to him or her as your life is to
you.
Chickens called
broilers are factory farmed for meat, and hens, referred
to as battery hens, for eggs. In
the UK over 600 million chickens called broilers are
raised and slaughtered every year for meat, 9
billion in the United States and approximately world
wide 43 billion.
In the UK there are
33 million chickens farmed for eggs, 75 percent are
factory farmed hens, of
these each year 3 million die of disease, that leaves
five percent barn hens and thirty percent free range,
but free range is not as cruelty free as many believe.
More about this later.
Factory farmed
Chickens, are raised for meat in hot ammonia
filled windowless sheds in huge flocks numbering as many
as 100,000 birds. The terms broilers and battery hens are used
to describe poultry which is raised in this type of
industrial high intensity farming
Although not kept
in cages broilers have living space that is less than
the size of an A 4 sheet of paper, on floors covered with
a layer of litter that remains unchanged during the
entire life of the bird, this means that they stand in
their own excreta with the result of painful ulcerated
feet and rock burns, these are black marks which
are caused as a consequence of ammonia, the ammonia is
of course caused by the litter which is not changed
until the birds are slaughtered.
Their food contains
growth hormones and antibiotics. This results in a rapid
and unnatural growth rate and soon conditions become
even more cramped. In addition the bird's misery is
compounded as her skeleton is unable to support her
unnatural weight. As many as 80 percent suffer with
broken bones, consequently some become so disabled as a
result that they are are unable to reach food or water
and eventaully die of starvation, a long protracted and
miserable death. The increase in the rate of growth puts
enormous stress on both the lungs and heart. In addition
disease spreads rapidly due to the close confinement of
these overcrowded unhygienic sheds. Approximately
6 percent of birds die in sheds due to starvation and
disease, salmonella being the most prevalent.
In natural
circumstances chickens reach full adult size in about
one year. Twenty years ago it would take about fourteen
weeks, nowadays due to the above methods it takes half
that time; within seven weeks at the most the bird
reaches maturity and is than slaughtered. Unwanted
male chicks approximately 40 million who are only one day old,
who of course cannot lay eggs, are gassed shortly after
birth and this applies also to male chicks produced
in the free range process which many believe is humane.
Although chickens when finally slaughtered are supposed to be unconscious before
slaughter, the stunning is often inadequate and birds
may be conscious when they are scolded in defeathering
tanks or skinned or while their throats are cut.
Even more
horrifying, often baby chicks are minced alive and their remains used as fertiliser
Living conditions
are
even worse for battery hens who are kept in cages, again
little more than the size of a sheet of A4 paper. As a
consequence of such confinement chickens cannot carry
out their natural behaviours such as dust bathing and
scratching. Dust bathing is a way in which chickens
clean their feathers. This natural behaviour which is so
intrinsic to their nature is often attempted while so
confined in cages even though of course there is no dust
for them to carry out this essential and indeed
pleasurable behaviour. This behaviour is called dust
bathing because the chicken appears to immerse herself
into a small indentation in the soil as though taking a
bath. In factory farmed chickens dust bathing is
impossible. As you can see from the photographs below, so
tightly confined are these poor creatures that even
moving is impossible. These crates are stacked so high
and in such great numbers that dead birds are not
removed and are left to decompose amongst the living. It
is hell unimaginable.
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Battery hens live their short miserable
lives confined in tiny cages.
The battery cage system is an
arrangement of bare wire cages, which
are stacked on top of each other in
rows. Each cage houses several hens and
each row may contain hundreds of cages
stacked at different levels. A nightmare
of misery and suffering.
The photograph above shows hens crammed
into tiny cages which are stacked in
endless rows right to the ceiling, here
they languish in filth and their own
excrement.
Often hens escape from their battery
cages, but instead of freedom they fall
into the vast manure pits which lies
beneath their cages, where without food
or water they will slowly die.
Photographs
courtesy of Farm Animal sanctuary.
Farm Sanctuary | Watkins Glen, NY 2
License
under
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No
Derivative Works 2.0 Generic
More of farm
sanctuary's photostream on flickr
egg_DSCN0018 on Flickr - Photo Sharing! |
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In such cramped
condition chickens become aggressive, pecking at one
another and also self injure. To prevent this a painful
and distressing procedure called debeaking is carried
out, often without anaesthetics, during which their
sensitive beaks are seared off with a hot blade.
Laying hens and breeding flocks are debeaked sometimes
twice: during the first week of life and sometimes again
between 12 and 20 weeks of age. After this mutilation the the poor bird than suffers
chronic pain.
In 1990 research, carried led by Michael Gentle at
the Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics
Research Edinburgh, Scotland, showed that experimentally
debeaked chickens demonstrated chronic pain and much
suffering following the operation.
"The avian
beak is a complex sensory organ which not only serves to
grasp and manipulate food particles prior to ingestion,
but is also used to manipulate non-food articles in
nesting behavior and exploration, drinking, preening,
and as a weapon in defensive and aggressive encounters.
To enable the animal to perform this wide range of
activities, the beak of the chicken has an extensive
nerve supply with numerous mechanoreceptors,
thermoreceptors, and nociceptors [ nerve endings
sensitive to mechanical pressures, heat and
pain]....Beak amputation results in extensive neuromas [tumors]
being formed in the healed stump of the beak which give
rise to abnormal spontaneous neural activity in the
trigeminal [threefold] nerve. The nociceptors present in
the beak of the chicken have similar properties to those
found in mammalian skin and the neural activity arising
from the trigeminal neuromas is similar to that reported
in the rat, mouse, cat and the baboon. Therefore, in
terms of the peripheral neural activity, partial beak
amputation is likely to be a painful procedure leading
not only to phantom and stump pain, but also to other
characteristics of the hyperpathic syndrome, such as
allodynia and hyperalgesia [the stress resulting from,
and extreme sensitiveness to, painful stimuli]."
Published in
Applied Animal Behavior Science, Vol. 27,
Quoted in United
Poultry Concerns, Inc.information sheet, debeaking
UPC Factsheet - Debeaking
In other words the
beaks of poultry have an extensive nerve supply in order
to equip them for the functions their beaks evolved to
carry out, which makes this area highly sensitive to heat
and pain. Furthermore the amputation of the beak
results in extensive tumours being formed, this has an
effect similar to that experienced in human amputees who
suffer what is referred to as phantom pain perceived as
coming from the limb which has been amputated. Debeaking
also results in referred and increased extreme
sensitivity to pain in general, which has both a
physical and an emotional effect, such as stress and
depression.
Battery hens are kept in constant artificial light to
encourage egg laying, they never of course see daylight.
Their claws grow too long and become caught up in the
floor of the cage preventing them from obtaining food or
water. As a result of the lack of exercise the bones of
battery hens become brittle and often break. No one
checks on their welfare of course, no one cares, these
hapless creatures often in pain and distress are merely
left to produce eggs as a machine produces plastic cups
for instance. The mortality rate is high amongst caged
battery hens, as much 6 percent.
Selectively breed
battery hens produce over 300 unnaturally large eggs per
year. Their original ancestors in their natural
circumstances produced as few as twelve to twenty at the
most! Imagine how exhausting this must be for these
unfortunate creatures.
The enormous
majority of chickens world wide are raised in factory
farms. This is because to do so is more cost
effective. More meat and eggs are produced at a lower cost and
consequently a bigger profit. But with little regard of
the cost to the unfortunate animals in terms of
suffering.
Concerning free
range
It may appear to
many that the lot of a free range bird is more natural,
that it is cruelty free, that a hen lays her eggs in
a natural manner until she dies of old age.
Nothing
could be further from the truth however.
According to EU
regulations free range hens are required to have
continuous access to the outside during the daytime. The
outside area is required to be covered with vegetation
with 1000 hens to an hectare of outdoor space. But the
reality is that they are usually kept in deep litter or
barns. You may see some eggs labelled as being produced
by woodland birds, these are birds kept in smaller
numbers in mobile sheds in natural landscapes such as
woodland.
In some ways of
course the circumstances above are better than those for
the battery hen, but do not be mistaken to think that
these conditions are cruelty free! In both of these
environments there are negatives which make free range
not as natural and as cruelty free as many imagine. This
includes myself until recently, that is until I
understood the reality, after which after 16 years of
being a vegetarian finally I became vegan.
The truth of the
matter is that many birds never or rarely go outside as
the flocks are too large, often as large as 16000
(confined in spaces of 12 hens per square metre), for
them to do so; as many as 50 per cent do not have
regular access to the outside. Some barns have only
access to one side and with limited space, the
requirement for the total opening
between the barn and the outside must not be less than
2m per 1000 hens. It is quite easy to assume that many
hens may never be able to push their way to the front,
doing so may well result in aggression and subsequent
injury, certainly only the fittest gain access. So their
lives are not as natural as we may suppose.
Moreover the
females do not live out their lives to old age, laying
eggs naturally, scratching, pecking at the ground,
having dust baths, nest-building and perching, and
generally behaving as a chicken would do in the wild as
many people believe.
This is a
misconception which the farming industry are only too
happy for you to carry on believing, content for you to
spend more money thinking that by doing so you are a
cruelty free consumer.
Here is even more
of the sad reality.
Free range
chickens still lay nearly as many eggs as battery hens
which amounts to about 300 eggs per annum, that's ten
times more than is normal! And remember as already
mentioned, in natural circumstances hens lay up to only
20 eggs each year. At the end of their egg laying lives
the hens are killed at about one year of age, a
chicken's natural life span is about six or seven years,
for low grade meat, and the male chicks as already
mentioned are killed at only one day old. Nothing
natural or cruelty free about that is there! One of the
most natural instincts of virtually all creatures, maternal instinct, a mothers instinct
to care for her young, is denied the mother who never
sees any of the chicks she gives birth too.
Like their factory
farmed counterparts free range chickens are in some
cases debeaked. As already described, debeaking is a
very painful procedure; no painkillers are administered
when the ends of their beaks are cut off with a hot
blade
Another category of
eggs we now see on the supermarket shelves are barn
eggs.
Although
a little cheaper than free range many people again buy
them with the assumption that they are cruelty free. The
name 'barn is a term which is deliberately
misleading the public into thinking the hens are kept in
clean bright, airy conditions with fresh straw on the
floor and plenty of room to spread their wings.
The designation "Barn eggs" simply means that the hens are housed in huge,
often filthy
windowless sheds, although not caged thousands of birds
are packed into very cramped spaces, 25 hens per square
metre, they have no access to the outside. Some have
access to perches or raised platforms and the floor is
at least partly covered with litter. Nesting
boxes are provided but many birds are not able to lay
their eggs in nesting boxes and instead lay them on the
floor where other birds eat them and where they become
contaminated by other birds faeces. For more shocking
information concerning the treatment of Chickens refer
to:
The Vegetarian Society - Information Sheet - laying hens
If people knew how KFC treats
its chickens, they'd never eat another drumstick.
Pamela Anderson
Chickens are of course not the
only bird to suffer dreadful cruelty, the plight
of ducks may in some cases be even worse.
Some of the above
information for this webpage was gleaned from the
websites below where you will find more comprehensive
information, fact sheets and campaigns and actions you
can take. The simplest of which and an action you can
take immediately is to:
stop eating meat, egges and other animal products. Advice about
how to become vegetarian or vegan may be found here on
this website :
So you want to become veggie /vegan?
Other related links
on this website;
Sentient Chickens
Also the websites
below provide information and recipes.
References and Links :
United Poultry Concerns [UPC] - www.upc-online.org
The Natural Lives of Chickens //
FreeBetty.com
PETA Media Center > Factsheets
Humane Society of the united
States ; About Chickens
GoVeg.com // Features // If Your Cat Tasted Like
Chicken, Would You Eat Her?
Viva! - Vegetarians International Voice for Animals
Chickens
Factory Farming | Farm Sanctuary hens
The Vegetarian Society -
Information Sheet - laying hens
Banner photograph by
just us 3
Chicken on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic
Back to the
top of the page
Ducks
Only fools think
our attitude to our fellow men is a thing distinct from
our attitude to 'lesser' life on this planet.
John Fowles
In the wild
ducks live for about fifteen years.
Ducts are
aquatic animals they spend 80 percent of their time in
water.
To stay healthy
ducks need access to water in ponds lakes and rivers and
space to roam freely.
Ducks also want
to live, and have young as do you and I. These are two
basic instincts common to all creatures. Furthermore all
creatures experience and wish to avoid pain.
The conditions
of factory farming mentioned below takes place in the UK
and the USA however similar exists in most countries
throughout the world. And in addition the production of
foi gras in France which is banned here in the UK
You may not be
aware of this but almost all duck meat you see in your
supermarket or eat in a restaurant comes from factory
farms. Most ducks however is bred for restaurants; often
part of the menu in Chinese restaurants duck is seen as
a special treat. However a treat for you is a nightmare
for the ducks; as your indulgence involves immense cruelty. I
like to think that if the facts where known few people
would eat duck.
In the UK The
Department for Environment, Food and Rural affairs Defra
recommends that ducks be kept in conditions which permit
them to live as naturally as possible to allow
"the fulfilment of essential biological requirements of
ducks, in particular respect of water, and the
maintenance of good health". However in reality this
recommendation comes no where near to being carried out.
One recommendation is that ducks have enough water to
immerse themselves and splash their backs, but this
rarely happens as such recommendations cannot it seems
be enforced.
I had not thought
of ducks as being subjected to factory farming as they
are far less popular than chickens or even turkeys, but
sadly it seems that few creatures escape this particular
insidious and cruel method of farming. Throughout the
entire world ducks are being deprived of their natural
habitat in ponds, lakes and rivers and reared for meat
and eggs in factory farms.
And make no mistake
the factory farming of ducks is as horrifyingly inhumane
as it is for other poultry. There is no outdoor access
ever, these poor creatures never in their short abused
lives see natural light.
Ducks like chickens
and turkeys are crammed into sheds with as many as
10,000 ducks, about 8 per square metre in each shed in
close confinement on concrete or wire floors, existing in litter soaked
in faces which like chickens and turkeys results in
painful ammonia burns. They are given dry pelleted food,
ducks naturally eat water plankton, seeds, plants, insects
and worms. Those kept on wire floors suffer tears and
abrasions to their feet. Kept in constant
artificial light they never see the natural light of
day, feel the warmth of the sun or the wind on their
backs let alone swim in a pond or fly. In their natural
environment ducks like to splash water over their bodies
and to immerse themselves; in factory farms other than
their drinkers there is no water, in some factory farms
there are not even troughs in which the ducks may
immerse their heads, there is in short no water for
ducks to behave as ducks instinctively do. In addition
to being a health benefit, more about this later, ducks
simply enjoy water as anyone knows who feeds ducks at
their local village or park pond or river .
"The favourite
time of the week for our ducks is Saturday morning, when
we clean out their pool. They quack maniacally, then
jump into the clean water, preening and dipping under.
Jem and Cherry are working birds - they're supposed to
eat slugs in the vegetable garden but, unlike chickens,
leave the veg alone. But even when allegedly working,
they will sit on water for hours - even in a washing-up
bowl on the lawn. Their enjoyment of water, and the fact
that ducks are aquatic, makes it all the more surprising
that most of the 18 million ducks reared for meat in
this country have no access to water for bathing."
To read all the
complete article:
Why farmed ducks endure worse conditions than battery
hens - Environment - The
In the wild ducks
can fly at speeds of 50 miles an hour, confined in sheds
they hardly have room to walk let alone fly. They become
subject to disease as they are unable to preen and clean
themselves, the consequence is dirty poor feather condition
resulting in an inability to keep warm. Many suffer as
a result of eye disease, ducks need water to rinse their
eyes; with out water to do this they go blind.
Other disabilities arise also from an inability to
cleanse themselves. Many fall onto their backs and are
not able to right themselves, their is no one to right
them, no one cares, there is virtually no one to
care: in one UK based company, the most
intensive enterprise of its kind there are as many as 85,000
birds tended by only one person. Consequently these poor
creatures die a frightening and protracted death
as they struggle in vain to right themselves. Read the
extract below from a resent Viva campaign, the
shocking facts should brings tears to any sensitive
person's eyes. Yet these atrocities and worse continue
often undetected and condoned throughout the whole
practice of factory farming
"Modern farming
techniques have turned the fluffy Easter duckling image
into a sick joke. 19 million ducks were slaughtered in
the UK in 2005 (in the mid 1970’s the UK duck population
was barely a million). We know what these birds lives
are really like because we have investigated several
duck units. Twice we visited Manor Farm Ducklings, who
then supplied Marks & Spencer. On our first visit, we
saw thousands of fluffy, yellow ducklings in stinking,
windowless sheds. Some could barely walk and dragged
themselves across on their wings. Others had fallen on
their backs and were unable to right themselves and this
is how they would die - a horrible, stressful death.
Many had already lost the battle to live and their
little corpses were scattered amongst the straw. One
duckling had fallen behind machinery and was hopelessly
trapped - calling desperately for a mother who would
never come."
http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/ducks/ms.html
Why are not ducks
given the water they need? Well as usual its all to do
with profit. In such confined conditions as
factory farms water spreads disease when ducks take in water into thier
systems, which is than evacuated into the water which
other ducks drink with the result of the spread
of disease, which may result in serious health problems including avian flu. Ducks are
derived of water should the water spread disease.
Another reason for the severe restriction of water is
because ducks naturally like to splash water over their
bodies and in nature this is no problem of course,
however in the unnatural environment of factory farms
such behaviours causes choking ammonia to be released
from the faeces-covered floor.
The answer of
course to the spread of disease in water is simply not
to factory farm ducks or indeed any other animal.
Did you know
that a duck's beak is as sensitive as your finger tips?
Yet like their chicken and turkey counterparts many suffer
the painful process of debeaking with out anaesthetics
or pain killers. Ducks have highly sensitive beaks due
to an intensive cluster of nerves in this area,
therefore this procedure is extremely painful and
results thereafter in chronic pain and difficulty in
eating
Farm ducks retain
their wild habits, in the wild ducks choose a mate and
live for ten to fifteen years. However in the factory farms they
are not allowed to mate in the natural way. In their
natural environment ducks care for their young and are
fiercely protective, the mother teaches them how to fly
and swim, clean their feathers ,eat and behave how ducks
evolved to behave. In factory farms none of the
ducklings ever see their mother. Female ducks have been
selectively breed to produce 100 percent more ducklings
than they did five years ago. A duck has been
produced to lay as many as 275 eggs each year, ten times
in access of ducks in the wild evolved to lay.
Mother
ducks have been bred to produce 100 per cent more
ducklings than five years ago. Cherry Valley say that
they have produced a ‘superduck’ which lays up to 275
eggs a year – ten times what she has evolved to lay.
This unnaturally high output of eggs causes a disease –
egg peritonitis – that is the main cause of death in
laying ducks. The duck’s ovaries become inflamed and the
reproductive tracts rupture causing agony.
Wild birds fly, swim, dive and walk – however, the
farmed birds are bred to be heavy. They may be unable to
fly, have difficulty in walking and are prone to leg
disorders. All this in a seven week life. The natural
life-span of a duck is 15 years. And what of their
death? They are usually hung upside down on a conveyor
system, causing great pain to birds which may already
have broken legs or injuries. Their heads are then
supposed to be dipped into an electrical waterbath.
However, both the Council of Europe and Bristol
University have shown that the majority of ducks are not
stunned properly – and are knifed fully conscious.
Extract from
Ducks Out of Water.
Read the complete article
Viva! - Vegetarians International Voice for Animals
Farmed ducks have
been bred from wild Mallard ducks and retain much of
thier wild instincts and behaviours. It is a fact that
the Council of Europe has ruled that farmed birds are
essentially still wild and retain their biological
behaviours which they have evolved. In their natural
habitats mallards are aquatic, social creatures living in large flocks in
autumn and winter and in spring and summer living in
pairs. The female producing about eights eggs, two or
three times each year. Ducks will forage on land but
obtain their food mainly from water, straining out
plankton and other food through their beaks.
In the factory farm
system, the ducks who lay
the eggs for hatching are made to moult, this is done by
starving them; all food is denied them until they
have lost a third of their body weight. Some times even
water is removed for twenty four hours at a time.
This is a method which brings about an extra egg laying
cycle but which results in about half of the birds
loosing their primary feathers and many dying, also of
significance of course is the stress, fear and misery which results from the effects of starvation on any
animal.
A particularly
horrifying factory farming abuse is the production of
Foie gras.
Millions of
ducks are selected for the production of Foie gras,
mostly in France but also elsewhere such as the USA and
hungry. Foie gras is a French term which means fatty
liver. This is produced by force feeding both ducks and
geese large amounts of meal which enlarges thei liver to ten times its normal size. This dreadful abuse results in much suffering . Ducks
raised for Foie gras, suffer from hepatic lipidosis, a
pathologically enlarged, physiologically impaired liver.
"During the
force-feeding process, the duck is grabbed by the neck
and a metal tube 8 feet long is forced down her esophagus. The desired amount of high fat, high
carbohydrate corm mush is pushed through the tube into
the duck's esophagus by either a manual or pneumatic
plump. The amount of food the birds are forced to ingest
is far greater than they would eat voluntarily. In fact
by the end of the force feeding period, each duck is
forced to consume 400 to 500 grams per day,
approximately one pound of corn and oil mixture ... This
is the amount that, for a 175 pound person, would be
equivalent to 44 pounds of pasta per day. The
force-feeding process is repeated 2-3 times per
day for up to one month. In order to facilitate the
force feeding process for farm workers, the ducks are
either confined in groups in small pens, or are
restrained in individual cages so small the birds can't
turn around or stretch thier wings."
Extract from Farm
Sanctuary The Welfare of Ducks and Geese in Foie Gras
Productions
NO Foie Gras - A Farm Sanctuary Campaign
Also you can
see videos including force feeding,
from GourmetCruelty.com: The Truth about Foie Gras
Foie
Gras Video Gallery - GourmetCruelty.com - Delicacy of
Despair.
The home page from
where you may read more about the production of foie
gras.
The Truth about Foie Gras - GourmetCruelty.com -
Delicacy of Despair
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Ducks and geese are crammed into tiny
cages there is no room to move let alone
walk. Here they are forced fed as a
metal tube is forcibly pushed down their throats,
there is no escape, no respite, three
times each day, day after day after day
they are subjected to this horror.
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Stacked closely together in dark
windowless sheds these poor creatures
await the most horrific of abuse
imaginable as a steel tube is forced
down thier throats three time each day
to forcibly feed them, to enlarge their
liver. |
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Dead ducks are left amongst the living
in the production of foie gras
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Photographs
courtesy of Farm Animal sanctuary.
Farm Sanctuary | Watkins Glen, NY 2
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Think if you eat
foie gras you are eating diseased liver. That's right
diseased liver! For more details see the section about
Geese Animal rights Geese
Like chickens
and turkeys the life of a duck in a factory farm is a far cry from that
which nature intended, their lives bear no resemblance
whatsoever to the ducks you feed on the village pond.
In a factory farm
there is nothing remotely natural about their existence
and most defiantly nothing remotely humane. They like
other unfortunate creatures are exploited, a means to an
end treated as nothing more than egg and meat producing
machines, not thinking feeling beings.
Their life span is
drastically cut short, when at only seven weeks they are
cruelly slaughtered, 20 million here alone in the UK
each year. You cannot imagine can you those cute ducks
we all like to feed at the local pond, fluffy yellow
chicks a symbol of Easter and the arrival of spring,
treated so cruelly; somehow people fail to make the connection as they sit
down to Peking duck in the local Chinese restaurant or
tuck into duck a l'orange
that these self same ducks are farmed in such shocking
conditions.
The misery
continues at the slaughter house where death is anything
but humane, if the act of taking another creatures life
can ever in any circumstances be humane. In the USA as many
as 100 million birds are not stunned before their
throats are cut. Stunning is in any event
enormously painful. Many may appear to be unconscious
but are instead paralysed, but still of course
aware of what is happening to them. Many are alive when
they are immersed into the defeathering tank of scalding
water.
In the UK of the 18
million ducks reared each year only 5 percent are free
range.
Again as with other poultry many consumers are conned
into believing that free rang farm animals live in more humane and natural
conditions, again nothing could be further from the
truth.
Although somewhat
better off their lives are by no means natural. Free
range ducks are kept in flocks of between 4,500 to as
many as 8,000 in out door paddocks, troughs are provided
but still there is no where to swim. And at the end of
the day they like, any other farmed animal face the
ultimate cruelty as they are killed prematurely.
Don't forget
the down
or feathers in your pillows, duck down in your pillows means that the
duck has either been slaughtered or plucked alive. That's
right plucked alive! You can't imagine it can you,
neither could I until researching information for this
website page. Duck down grows under the surface
feathers of the bird, this provides insulation for the
bird, either a duck or a geese, although as geese is
down is better quality most down comes from geese. It is
sought after as it makes for a comfortable pillow or as
insulating for quilts, padded jackets, sleeping bags.
For more information about the shocking, painful and
highly traumatic practice of live plucking see the section
on geese
Although eider
ducks are protected species they do not escape
unscathed. Each year farmers in Iceland gather more than
6,500 pounds of down feather, taken from the nests of
eider ducks. The mother duck plucks these from her chest
to line her nest in order to insulate her eggs from the
cold, removing them causes the chicks to die.
Now please do not
allow yourself to be led into thinking that because
female ducks pluck down from their breasts to line their
nests that plucking is painless. The mother ducks only
takes a few, they are not ripped from her forcibly, which
happens when she is plucked. Another misconception which
many people try to use to justify this abuse as being
painless is that ducks and geese moult. Moulting is of
course painless, feathers simply drop out much as you
hair does from time to time without you even noticing
it. Therefore such arguments to justify this
cruelty are invalid. Ducks and geese after such
treatment take several days to recover from the shock.
After being grabbed and having their feathers and or
down torn from them they stagger about trembling and
lean against supports or huddle together. It is
extremely painful, rather like having all your hair
pulled out. Ducks like us have a brain and nervous
system and will of course feel pain.
There are now
excellent alternatives and no one needs down or
feathers, which are in any case not for our use, they
evolved to keep ducks and other waterfowl warm.
Below are links to
websites with more information concerning the
exploitation and abusive methods of factory farming
meted out to ducks.
The solution as
always is to stop eating ducks or their eggs and avoid
the purchase of products which use their feathers or
down. There are other actions you may take by visiting
the website below where you will also find advice about
altering your diet to avoid meat or eggs.
Related links on
this website:
Sentient Ducks
So you want to become veggie /vegan?
References and Links :
GoVeg.com // Cruelty to Animals // Ducks and Geese //
Ducks and Geese on Factory Farms
Viva!
- Vegetarians International Voice for Animals Home
VIVAnd Factory Farming Ducks
Viva! - Vegetarians International Voice for Animals
cruelty at the Co-op
http://thehill.com/wppdf/FoiegrasWelfareEvidence.pdf
Viva! USA DUCKS
Back to the
top of the page
Turkeys
A man should
wander about treating all creatures as he himself would
be treated.
Sutrakritanga (Jainism)
The nightmare
before Christmas - at least for the turkeys
In the wild
turkeys live for twelve years
"it is only when we get
close to animals, and examine them with open
minds that
we are likely to glimpse the being within. Natural
history writing is strewn with incidents which writers
are moved to awe by the intelligence, sensitivity
and awareness of animals they have lived with. When Joe
Hutto, a turkey hunter, lived for a year among a flock
of wild turkeys in Florida, he was moved to describe
them as his superiors - more alert, sensitive and aware,
and vastly more conscious than himself. Hutto
concluded that the birds are in love with being alive."
Jonathan Balcombe
describing the experiences of Joe Hutto in his book Pleasurable Kingdom
Dear Lord, I've
been asked, nay commanded, to thank Thee for the
Christmas turkey before us... a turkey which was no
doubt a lively, intelligent bird... a social being...
capable of actual affection... nuzzling its young with
almost human-like compassion. Anyway, it's dead and
we're gonna eat it. Please give our respects to
its family.
Berke Breathed.
Turkeys are
gentle creatures known for their resourcefulness and
agility, Benjamin Franklin called the Turkey "a bird of
courage" he thought the Turkey truly deserved to be the national bird
of the USA instead of the Bald Engle.
In a recent study
here in the UK it was found that turkeys showed a
preference for different kinds of music and sounds. It
was also found that turkeys play with one another and
when an apple was thrown into a group of turkeys they
will play with it as a group .
“Very few
animals go through the stresses of poults [baby turkeys]
in their first three hours of life. They are squeezed
for sexing, thrown down a slide onto a treadmill,
someone picks them up and pulls the snood off their
heads, clips three toes off each foot, debeaks them, puts them on another conveyer belt that delivers them to
another carousel where they get a power injection,
usually of an antibiotic, that whacks them in the back
of their necks. Essentially, they have been through
major surgery. They have been traumatized. They don’t
look very good. . . .”
Dr. William E.
Donaldson, North Carolina State University
A very succinct and
accurate description of the atrocities of factory
farming as it relates to turkeys and all that takes
place within the first three hours of their tormented lives!
Like chickens
turkeys are bred to grow faster and bigger than would
other wise be the case in the wild, genetic manipulation
and antibiotics produces 35 pound birds within a few
months. As a consequence many suffer from painful leg
problems, their hearts and lungs cannot cope with the
strain, the result is heart and lung collapse and
crippling deformity and chronic pain. Twenty five per
cent of turkeys are in chronic pain because of swollen
joints, 70 per cent of big birds. Other breeding and
genetic modifying techniques have been further
implemented to produce anatomically disproportionate
birds with large breasts, which is what the market wants
and where the most money is made. There is little space
remaining in their body cavity for other organs. Due to
the extent of genetic interference turkeys are now so
heavy that they can no longer reproduce naturally. Two
or three times a week the males are in effect "milked"
for their semen by workers who manipulate the males’
anal area until the phallus is erect and semen is
ejected, helped along by the pressure on the lower
abdomen. The semen is than introduced into the female's
vagina by hypodermic syringe or the operator’s breath
pressure, through a length of tubing while the bird is
held upside down. The repeated use of this practice is
stressful and if not performed correctly may lead to
injury. In addition artificial insemination spreads fowl
cholera, a major disease which results from the factory
farming of turkeys. Rather reminds one of plant
propagation techniques in a green house rather than a
procedure carried out on feeling sentient beings. The
turkey you see in your supermarket only now exists
because of artificial insemination.
A female turkey is
little more than a meat or egg laying machine. Mother
turkeys like their chicken counterparts never see their
off spring. In their natural circumstances turkey
mothers, like ducks, communicate with their chicks both while still
in the egg and following their birth. In factory farms
when eggs are laid, fertile eggs are immediately
taken from the mother and sent to the hatchery. After
twenty eight days in the hatchery the chicks are transferred
to what are called growing sheds where the heat is kept
at a high temperature and the lighting dim. Many chicks
die of heart attacks and heat stroke, they suffer stress
and aggression from their fellow equally traumatised
chicks. Many die of thirst and starvation unable to
locate water and feeding points.
Also like chickens
turkeys are crammed together, as many as 25,000 in each
dimly lit windowless shed. The lighting is dim to
discourage aggression due to the stress and frustration
of their dreadful and unnatural conditions, which
results in fighting as birds attack each other's eyes and
toes. Many peck at each other, pull out feathers and in
some intensive factory farms cannibalism takes place.
Low lighting causes reduced activity levels and results
in abnormal growth. Turkeys are by nature gentle
creatures, in the wild this kind of aggression does not
take place.
Like broiler
chickens turkeys are kept on a litter floor. However
unlike chickens turkeys do not scratch round in the
litter and as a consequence the litter deteriorates even
more quickly than that of chickens. Make no mistake in
thinking that these litter floors are cleaned out; like
chicken sheds, turkey sheds are only cleaned out after
the birds are taken to be slaughtered. After the
duration of the growing period as much as 80 percent of
this is faeces, the consequence of this increases their suffering as turkeys develop ulcerated feet and painful
burns to their breasts and legs as a result of the build
up of ammonia as turkeys spend their short lives
standing on litter which becomes increasingly wet and
dirty. The maximum space for each bird is no more
than 260cm2/kg,
3.5 square
feet, this space becomes increasingly more tightly packed
as the turkey grows rapidly.
This joyless life
filled with misery is a far cry from how turkeys live in
their natural habitat. In the wild turkeys can fly
at speeds of up to 55 miles per hour and run at speeds
of up to 25 miles per hour. In their natural habitat in
their native land of America turkeys roost in trees,
eating vegetation and insects, roaming through the
woodland. Mothers are protective of their young living
in harems.
Imagine the
frustration, anxiety and depression which results from
such confinement. To further add to this suffering many
birds may be found with open wounds and sores, dead or
dying, suffering disease and neglect. Their suffering is
ignored, untreated, no one checks to see if any birds
cannot reach food or water, no one tends their wounds
they are merely a means to an end, and that end is not
to
put food on your table as cheaply as possible, food
which you really do not need, but rather to provide a
significant profit for the meat industry.
When turkeys are
but a few days old factory farm workers cut off portions
of their upper beaks and toes with hot blades and also
remove with an instrument, or simply pull off, the males flap of skin which runs from the beak to the chest,
this procedure called desnooding is undertaken to
minimalise cannibalism. All of these procedures/
mutilations are
carried out without the use of anaesthetics or
pain killers.
Furthermore debeaking my result in chronic
pain. It is also done more than once. This cruel
practice is meant to prevent birds from scratching and
pecking each other to death, which as
already mentioned it is a behaviour not seen in the
wild; such abnormal behaviours occur no doubt as a
result of the stress and misery of their painful lives.
Debeaking is of course not the solution, the
cessation of factory farming of course is the only
remedy, indeed any kind of farming and the
reintroduction of turkeys into the wild.
Make no mistake in
thinking that turkeys and other poultry are not aware of
their circumstances, see
sentient animals, and as a consequence do not
experience in addition to dreadful pain, stress, anxiety
and fear. This is one of the erroneous beliefs
that the meat industry is quite happy to have you
continue to believe. The reality is that indeed like
humans turkeys and other poultry experience fear and
stress. Stress results in a condition called
"starve-out" the name of the condition
that causes young birds to stop eating. The cessation of
eating and drinking is a sign of stress that manifests
in all animals including man. "Starve-out" may
also occur as a consequence of many birds being unable
to reach food and water supplies, not able to fight their
way through the throng of stronger birds in the cramped
conditions.
Birds have also been observed to show not
only signs of chronic pain after debeaking, but also
depression.
In addition to
the above if such cruelty was not bad enough turkeys may
suffer deliberate abuse. Prosecution takes place in such
cases but remember that this occurs only when the
culprits are caught and that often only happens after an
animal rights group has undertaken an investigation.
Such as the abuse discovered by Hillside Animal
Sanctuary when workers at Bernhard Matthews intensive
factory farm where filmed using turkeys as footballs.
There are no doubt many similar cases of abuse which
never get reported. Such incidences occur the world over
as in the case of appalling cruelty reported by People
for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), where
turkeys where beaten, kicked and stomped to death.
Faeces and even broom handles pushed down their throats
are amongst some of the horrendous abuses reported, which
of course all takes place in the full view of other
turkeys inducing unimaginable terror.
"A PETA investigation of Minnesota-based Crestview Farm
revealed that the manager of the farm repeatedly used a
metal pipe to bludgeon 12-week-old turkeys who were
lame, injured, ill, or otherwise unsuitable for
slaughter and consumption. The injured birds were thrown
onto piles of other dead and dying birds then tossed
into a wheelbarrow for disposal. Birds who were
overlooked were kicked or beaten with pliers or had
their necks wrung—all in full view of other terrified
birds. When the Minnesota Turkey Growers came to the
defense of the farmer, the local district attorney
refused to prosecute."
Take Action: Breaking Investigation Reveals Holiday
Horrors for Turkeys
And when finally
their short miserable lives are ended as they are sent
to the abattoir (between three and six months old, hen
turkeys are slaughtered between nine and 11 weeks of
age), their suffering is far from over. In preparation
for the abattoir turkeys sufferer much abuse and often
workers who catch the birds for transportation handle
them so violently that they routinely break their bones,
and many suffer painful and distressful haemorrhaging
before their arrival at the Slaughter house, after a
horrifying journey sometimes of considerable distance
crammed in lorries in conditions of severe stress in
extremes of temperature, some suffocate or become
injured before arriving at their destination .
If they have not
already died of injury or shock from such treatment.
More abuse awaits them at the abattoir
Legislation in the
UK allows turkeys to be shackled by their
legs for up to six minutes before they are killed,
a procedure that results in obvious suffering. Turkeys
and other poultry are rendered unconscious by having
their heads immersed in an electrified water bath, a
cruelty which in itself does not bear thinking about.
Anyone who has had even the mildest of electric shocks
will know only to well how painful contact with an
electrical current can be. However to increase this
horrendous suffering still further turkeys often suffer
the additional trauma of pre stun electric shocks
because their wings often make contact with the water
before their heads. How can anyone consider this a
humane way of rendering an animal unconscious.
However this
system of stunning is not infallible, many remain conscious or
regain consciousness. A back up system meant to
decapitate any birds that are not stunned, another awful
way to die of course, often misses some birds due to the
large volume of birds each hour. These birds continue on
to the neck cutter which severs one carotid artery, it takes about five minutes for the bird to loose brain
responsiveness. As a consequence many birds enter the
scolding tank, a device for defeathering,
fully conscious. Million of birds
will be conscious when they enter the scolding tank.
The Shocking facts
is that in the USA 270 million turkeys are killed
each year 72 million of whom are slaughtered at holiday
times including Christmas. In the UK 15 million are
slaughtered annually with 10 million at Christmas time. I
have been unable to find out the number of birds killed
annually world wide to provide you with your Christmas
dinner, the figure must be unimaginably high. What
an incongruous and truly hideous way to celebrate
the birth of religious figure whom any believe to be a man of peace.
