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Video shows chicks ground up alive at egg hatchery

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090901/ap_o...estigation

Fucking hell! And from the article, it looks like even if you buy organic eggs from cage-free chickens from the the smaller farm labels like I do, you're still supporting this. Fuck. The only way to avoid supporting this is get your eggs from people you know personally who happen to have a few hens in their back garden, or never have an egg involved in anything you eat again, even in restaurants. Fuck!

That is what I thought too Anastasia. How do you avoid it? I might be able to get local eggs but I don't see them out often esp in off-season. And when I go out, I want what I want and that might include eggs.

I wonder if this is going on in the UK? Maybe I'm not supporting it. But I will be in the US again one day.

ITA. I can get eggs at the farmer's market, but I can't avoid every food with eggs in it, or I'd never go out to eat or buy somethine premade ever again!

I have a dumb question. Why can't roosters be raised for meat? I understand that they fight with each other, but still...does their flesh taste bad or something?

(09-02-2009 11:24 AM)CF Scorpio Wrote: [ -> ]ITA. I can get eggs at the farmer's market, but I can't avoid every food with eggs in it, or I'd never go out to eat or buy somethine premade ever again!

I have a dumb question. Why can't roosters be raised for meat? I understand that they fight with each other, but still...does their flesh taste bad or something?

I raise my own chickens so I never buy eggs but I agree, I can't avoid things with cruetly eggs in them. As to your question about why can't roosters be raised for meat: there are different breeds of chickens. There are egg chickens, and meat chickens. (Just like meat cows and milk cows.) Egg chickens produce bigger eggs in larger quantities over their life time than meat chickens do. And many of them produce those pristine white eggs that everyone is used to. But egg chickens tend to be relatively skinny with not much meat on them. Meat chickens don't lay as many eggs as egg chickens and they tend to lay brown eggs but they are much more "meaty," literally. They've been bred to have more muscle on their bones.

So, when egg producers breed egg chickens, and they get a rooster, the time and money spend feeding and raising that rooster for meat would be valued more than the amount of money they could get by selling the meat from that chicken. So they would essentially be losing money trying to raise egg roosters for meat.

This is also the reason why, when you buy chicks and have them shipped through the post office, if you order less than 25, they will add egg rooster chicks to your order to fill it out so the chicks will stay warm enough for the trip to you. I had this happen and I ended up with 7 roosters I didn't pay for, or ask for. I had to butcher them, and while they were tasty, not much meat on them.

I am *extremely sensitive* to shit like this, so I didn't click on the link. I know it will really upset me. Can someone explain in simple terms what it was about? I am a vegetarian for ethical reasons, but not vegan. I have not worked very hard at avoiding eggs in my diet, but I probably should... can someone explain to me why I should? In words that are not too upsetting, if you don't mind? THANKS!

Wow that video brought tears to my eyes. I feel shell-shocked after watching it.

I was vegan for several years. I gave it up because I wanted to eat a higher protein diet for building muscle. Maybe it's time to go back to it.

Jo - the video shows a chick processing factory. Workers manhandle baby chickens. The males are put in a meat grinder while still alive. The females are very roughly debeaked, which is very painful, according to the video. They are moved through the factory on conveyor belts. When one falls off the belt or is missed, they die a slow death, sometimes being run through scalding water or just left on the floor to die.

Sorry, there's no sugar-coating the video. Watching it is very disturbing.

I could figure out the basics of what was in the video based on JMK's description... that they were picking out the male chicks and disposing of them.

Oddly enough, for meat chickens (or at least one type) the best value is with the rooster. My local farmer's market sells chickens by the individual (so not by weight) and they guarantee a minimum weight as they only sell us the roosters.

My coworker lives in the city and has chickens in his garage, so there is that option...

(09-02-2009 12:14 PM)Jo Wrote: [ -> ]I am *extremely sensitive* to shit like this, so I didn't click on the link. I know it will really upset me.

Me, too!
I couldn't click the link either. I almost started crying just reading what it was about.
The way that some people treat animals is so appalling. Fucking unbelievable.
And the fact that shit like this goes on and people allow it to happen in their factories is criminal, IMO.

I wish I had BILLIONS of dollars and could rescue all of the animals that people didn't want, lol!

There are tons more vegan protein options now than there were years ago. I don't like eggs on their own and don't eat them, but I don't avoid baked goods with eggs in them. I think I might now. Thank you for explaining it, CNK. I feel sick just thinking about it.

JMK, thank you for answering my question.

Jo, the link above is not to the actual video: it's to an article. There is a clickable link to the video in the article, but I also did not watch it because I'm squeamish. I was able to read the article though.

Slightly OT but if you read about pig farming, you'll never, ever eat factory farmed pork or bacon again. Pigs are smarter than dogs and what they endure is apalling.

I didn't watch the video either. If they can't use the male chicks can't they just kill them more humanely?
I've heard about pig farming too. I just feel like it's still going to happen whether I eat the stuff or not, but I rarely eat pork anyway, I don't care for it. Bacon maybe a couple times a year. Probably not anymore!

Honestly, I would probably eat meat if not for factory farming. I get the whole business about all sorts of things on planet earth eat other things on planet earth to survive. So long as my survival is not at stake, though, I will never ever ever eat meat when I know that it's hardly a matter of survival and all about mass production and profit. Ugh.

It's completely inhumane, and how anyone can go to work every day, and treat a living thing the way those 'farmers' treat living things... and then go home and forget about it... I don't know. It reminds me of those SS soldiers in WWII who shot Jews or Ukraines or whoever in the head one by one by one while they fell into a pit. And in some horrid universe, that is actually ten times more humane than what animals on a factory farm endure.

Jo - you may enjoy this book:

http://www.amazon.com/My-Year-Meats-Ruth...160&sr=8-1

It's a sad but funny and well written novel about the meat industry.

Here's another:

http://www.amazon.com/Dakota-Martha-Grim...425&sr=1-2

Very touching book about a woman's collision with the pig farming industry - again well written - the treatment of the pigs is heartbreaking.

I think about books/articles written on animal cruelty the same way I think about marriage... I know enough to know I don't need to see it up close and personal to get it. I already get it and I opted out. I have a VERY VERY VERY thin skin when it comes to animal cruelty and for as thick skinned as I am in pretty much every other aspect of my life (not much rattles me), even THINKING about animal cruelty makes me physically sick. So I don't read stuff about it, I don't watch those documentaries... I support PETA in theory, but I wont go to their website for all their in-your-face videos... I don't need to see it to know how horrible it is. This is why I've been a vegetarian for 18 years. I have done what I can do save for going vegan. And not reproducing and creating little potential carnivores is helpful, too.

(09-02-2009 12:35 PM)Ziggy Wrote: [ -> ]Oddly enough, for meat chickens (or at least one type) the best value is with the rooster. My local farmer's market sells chickens by the individual (so not by weight) and they guarantee a minimum weight as they only sell us the roosters.

This actually makes sense. Roosters are usually bigger than hens. So for a meat birds, the rooster has more meat than the hen does and is worth more. The hen is valuable for reproduction more so than meat. With egg chickens, the rooster is only valuable for reproduction and can't produce eggs on his own nor his he good for meat. AND a SINGLE rooster can fertilize 25 hens for two weeks at a time. Once they mate, the hen keeps the sperm inside her and lays fertile eggs for two weeks without another mating. And since egg hatch rates are a 50/50 chance for a male, half the hatchlings are a waste of time and money for the egg producers.

Is there a more humane way to dispose of them? Yes.
It is cheaper and faster than the current way? No

It all comes down to the money.

If any of you are interested in possibly finding a local small supplier of eggs or meat, (or you would like to try to raise your own, it's super fun!) you can find all the information you could ever want at www.backyardchickens.com. Their forum is awesome!!

(09-02-2009 12:00 PM)jmk3482 Wrote: [ -> ]

(09-02-2009 11:24 AM)CF Scorpio Wrote: [ -> ]ITA. I can get eggs at the farmer's market, but I can't avoid every food with eggs in it, or I'd never go out to eat or buy somethine premade ever again!

I have a dumb question. Why can't roosters be raised for meat? I understand that they fight with each other, but still...does their flesh taste bad or something?

I raise my own chickens so I never buy eggs but I agree, I can't avoid things with cruetly eggs in them. As to your question about why can't roosters be raised for meat: there are different breeds of chickens. There are egg chickens, and meat chickens. (Just like meat cows and milk cows.) Egg chickens produce bigger eggs in larger quantities over their life time than meat chickens do. And many of them produce those pristine white eggs that everyone is used to. But egg chickens tend to be relatively skinny with not much meat on them. Meat chickens don't lay as many eggs as egg chickens and they tend to lay brown eggs but they are much more "meaty," literally. They've been bred to have more muscle on their bones.

So, when egg producers breed egg chickens, and they get a rooster, the time and money spend feeding and raising that rooster for meat would be valued more than the amount of money they could get by selling the meat from that chicken. So they would essentially be losing money trying to raise egg roosters for meat.

This is also the reason why, when you buy chicks and have them shipped through the post office, if you order less than 25, they will add egg rooster chicks to your order to fill it out so the chicks will stay warm enough for the trip to you. I had this happen and I ended up with 7 roosters I didn't pay for, or ask for. I had to butcher them, and while they were tasty, not much meat on them.

That's interesting to know. I only buy brown eggs, though, I haven't bought a white egg in more than a decade. Maybe the eggs I buy are from meat hens? I usually only buy free range organic, or cage free organic.

When I was in the UK on a trip a few years ago, DH & I stayed at a B&B in the Yorkshire Dales and the couple who own it keep a few hens and a couple of roosters in the back garden roaming around. Each morning they provide fresh eggs for breakfast, like nothing I've ever tasted. The eggs were various shades of brownish, whiteish, speckly, and blue. Yes, blue. And they were absolutely amazing. I wonder what kind of hen makes them so random colored and blue?

(09-02-2009 03:15 PM)Jo Wrote: [ -> ]I think about books/articles written on animal cruelty the same way I think about marriage... I know enough to know I don't need to see it up close and personal to get it. I already get it and I opted out. I have a VERY VERY VERY thin skin when it comes to animal cruelty and for as thick skinned as I am in pretty much every other aspect of my life (not much rattles me), even THINKING about animal cruelty makes me physically sick. So I don't read stuff about it, I don't watch those documentaries... I support PETA in theory, but I wont go to their website for all their in-your-face videos... I don't need to see it to know how horrible it is. This is why I've been a vegetarian for 18 years. I have done what I can do save for going vegan. And not reproducing and creating little potential carnivores is helpful, too.

I understand. Maybe someone else here (who still eats meat?) will enjoy these novels. They aren't bash-your-head-in, just good stories that happen to involve the meat industry.

We have a local farmer's market (all participants are forced to prove that they reside nearby and produce their products themselves). They have pastured beef, pork, lamb, chickens, and more exotic animals:
http://www.ottawafarmersmarket.ca/vendorsMeat.html
All the animals would be antibiotic- and hormone-free as well. Plus they have eggs from free-roaming chickens which doesn't resolve the problem from that video but it does make me feel better.

I prefer this solution to becoming a vegan as I don't think that I would last long. The fact that the market went from a few participants every Sunday to a hundred vendors 2-3 times a week shows that healthier meat is popular! Mind you, I can only do this because I live in a city that makes it possible.