12.02.07

Ban Battery Cages: My Tour of a Modern Day Egg Facility

Posted in Veganism, Social Justice, Animal Rights, Farm Investigations, My Life, Activism at 11:39 pm by Freeman Wicklund

Hens suffer miserable lives in filthy, wire and metal “battery cages” to produce cheap eggs for people to eat. View a pictoral tour of a battery cage egg farm.

In 2000, members of Compassionate Action for Animals and I did an open rescue at an egg farm in LeSueur, MN owned by Michael Foods. The eggs from this farm are packaged and sold to consumers under the brand name Crystal Farms.

Confinement, Neglect and Deprivation

Sadly, not much has changed in terms of how chickens are raised for egg production. They are still confined in filthy, barren wire and metal cages where they are unable to freely turn around, move, or stretch even a single wing.

Contagious disease is a real problem in these overcrowded prisons for egg-laying hens. Industry responds by adding antibiotics into the feed, which is producing human health consequences as more bacteria become resistant to antibiotics from their overuse.

When we visited, one million and six-hundred thousand hens were imprisoned in the facility. We found scores of sick and injured hens forced to languish untreated.

A hen, who we named Wren, suffers from an untreated ear infection. What you see is the untreated blood and puss that has been allowed to accumulate. We got her vet care and took her to sanctuary where she recovered and thrived.

They suffered from large bloody growths, ear infections, eye infections, respiratory diseases, broken bones, prolapsed oviducts, beak neuromas, and a host of other ills.

It was no suprise that workers spent nearly four hours a day removing animals who died from neglect and illness from the cages.

Dead and dying hens were dumped in wheelbarrows around the facility.

Despite this, we frequently found live hens in cages with the dead, decomposing, maggot and fly-infested corpses of dead hens.

Deprived of a Mother’s Love and Mutilated

Hens used for eggs originate in a hatchery where–instead of having a mother hen lovingly turn their eggs multiple times a day and chirp to them while they are in their shells, and then protect, love and nurture them once they hatch–they are rotated and hatched by machine. Deprived of their mother’s love, protection, and guidance, they arrive in a cold an alien world.

They are sexed. The baby male chicks, who are deemed worthless by the egg industry because they cannot make eggs, are soffocated to death or ground up alive in giant blenders so they can become fertilizer or food for other animals.

This hen, whom we named Audrey, suffered from a double beak neuroma as a result of the severe debeaking she underwent. Her comb is also floppy and pale; a sign of sickness and poor health. We rescued rehabilitated her before taking her to sanctuary.

The female chicks, however, have part of their beaks seared off with a hot blade in a process known as debeaking. No pain-killers are provided and this proceedure is painful not only at the time of being debeaked, but also for month’s afterwards. Many of them develop painful beak neuromas as their severed nerve endings try to regenerate themselves.

Industry debeaks hens to prevent fatalities from stress-induced fighting in the cages. However, another solution would be to provide hens enough space to socialize normally and the ability to escape dominant hens.

Slaughter

When the hens’ egg production delinces, usually around 18 to 24 months of age, they too will be slaughtered and used for chicken soup or nuggets.

This hen suffers from a prolapsed oviduct. We named her Catherine. This picture was taken of her immediately after her rescue. Follow the jump to see how she looked after being rehabilitated and taken to sanctuary.

End the Massacre

The best way to help farmed animals, including hens raised for eggs, is to stop contributing to the violence by not eating eggs, dairy products, and meat. Boycott the violence that humanity inflicts on animals every day; check out my tips on becoming vegan.

Here is Catherine one month after her rescue at sanctuary. The veterinary care and exercise fixed her prolapse, her feathers grew back and she loved to run and play in the sun, explore her surroundings, dust bathe, and socialize normally with other hens. She finally had a life worth living!

Share These Photos with Your Friends

Education is also important. I recently added photos of the investigation to my photo album so I can share with the world the horrors hens endure and ask people to help me in stopping the massacre.

Please download these photos and share them with friends and family so we can end the neglectful and cruel practice of confining hens in battery cages. You can quickly download all 25 of them as a zip folder for free by going here and clicking the “add item to cart” link underneath the photo of the hens in a battery cage. When the new page appears, in the upper right hand corner will be a pull down bar. Select, “download in zip” and press “Go.”

Then you will need Stuff It Expander or a similar program to uncompress the files. If you do not have this program, you can download the photos one at a time. Feel free to print the photos, use them as digital files for Power Point or Keynote presentations, or do anything else with them to get the humane message out there.

Thanks!

A hen we named Lois and I. I wish I could have removed all of the tortured souls from their cages and given them aid and comfort. Please help the remaining hens by boycotting eggs and getting active for animal rights.

Open Rescues

People are also curious as to what an open rescue is, so let me explain. It is a form of civil disobeience that follows the guidelines set up by Martin Luther King, Jr. of doing our action openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the consequences.

Compassionate Action for Animals attempted extensive negotion with Michael Foods before doing the open rescue. When we did the rescue we followed strict nonviolence guideline to not injure people or animals or damage the property. Afterwards, we told Michael Foods of our findings and what we had did and they did not press charges–probably because they did not want to attract attention to the suffering they cause to innocent animals.

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