Chicken and the egg
July 2023
Regarding your story “Eggs to crack $15. What a ‘yoke’”, I’m all “cracked up” for the egg producers.
The battery-caged egg industry is covered by codes of practice allowing this cruel type of “farming”.
A look at the miserably unacceptable short lives of caged layer hens begs the question, why wait until 2036 to stop the practice?
If these conditions existed in a puppy farm they would be closed immediately and the owners prosecuted.
There is no protein shortage. It’s in many foods in abundance, and eggs are not essential other than to make money.
Phil Cornelius
Free hens now
August '22
I refer to the article “Battery cages set to go” by 2036.
What a cruel farce – 14 more years for millions of layer hens trapped in cages.
Egg producers will from this year be required to install nest areas in new chicken cages and provide access to perches, platforms, and scratch areas.
But to me, these window-dressing changes are legislated on paper to placate people under the guise of animal welfare. This is because I have seen no mention of cage sizes or numbers of birds per cage.
Phil Cornelius
Chook welfare
April 2021
I found Nick Ryan’s column about the death of his last guinea fowl lacking any real concern for the bird’s welfare (“ Fowl tale of nature’s harshest lessons.")
He made no mention of any effort having been made to guard against future attack by foxes by improving the safety of the coop against predators.
These animals were in his care and he let them down badly.
I don’t understand why he did not do the right thing by them. Without a serious effort being made to make the coop fox-proof , his next lot of birds will be picked off one at a time too.
W. Parsons
Alleviate the suffering
February 2021
Thank you, Michael Morris, for drawing attention to the suffering of ‘‘broiler’’ chickens (Poultry face world’s worst injustices).
In a just world, deliberately creating deformed birds, knowing that by doing so the birds will suffer enormously from painful crippling and heart problems, would be viewed as an act of animal cruelty and punished accordingly.
Sadly, this abhorrent practice of ‘‘playing God’’ with animals extends to most farmed animals – all in the name of greed.
Cows are bred to produce more milk than nature intended resulting in leg deformities from the weight of their abnormally heavy udders.
Sheep are unable to survive in the wild because they have been bred to produce more wool than nature intended and are unable to shed it.
Turkeys have been selectively bred to have such huge chests they can no longer mate.
The list goes on. We may not be able to immediately halt this cruel abuse of animals but by switching to plant-based diet we can instantly help alleviate this suffering.
Jenny Moxham
Chickens selectively bread
February 2021
I read the New Zealand Vegetarian Society’s spokesperson Phillip McKibbin’s compassionate plea in his letter “Meat-free 2021," and point out chickens are the most popular meat and because of the immense numbers produced they are the most abused species in the cruel animal food chain.
They suffer because economics, raising them as quickly as possible at the lowest possible cost, is the prime concern of the industry. Chickens have been selectively bred to grow to 2kg in 30-35 days rather than 64 days, resulting in a variety of metabolic disorders and skeletal problems and huge suffering.
Over the growing time the floor of poultry sheds is not cleaned, so ammonia accumulates causing lung, skin and leg lesions from decomposing litter and faeces. Large sheds hold up to 60,000 birds that are considered crops or batches, and at slaughter they are still babies.
I agree wholeheartedly with Phillip we can help prevent this cruelty by adopting a kinder, healthier plant-based diet. A huge variety of delicious, inexpensive recipes are available on the internet.
Diane Cornelius
Ingrid the big winner
August 2020
The story, “Chicken ticker! Injured bird shows real heart”, about meat chicken Ingrid’s predicament, draws attention to the fate of meat chickens. Quick growth brings heavy bodyweight and broken limbs. Meat chickens are purpose-bred and usually killed by 16 weeks of age afterlives of suffering. Of the millions of meat chickens suffering in crowded sheds around Australia, Ingrid, at Edgar’s Mission, would be among the few to receive care and love.
Alice Shore
Best of Cluck
December 2019
Re the article on hens, Best of Cluck, since childhood I have found great comfort in watching hens free ranging, digging gardens, dust bathing in gentle sunshine, coming inside for a “chat” .
Hens, even ISA Browns, are extremely curious creatures and hence the lives that billions of them, caged worldwide, have to endure are extremely cruel.
Alice Shore
Feeding our Soul
December 2019
Thanks to SBS The Feed for giving us glimpses of the brutality at hen abattoirs. Horrible.
And thanks to SBS for the program on Margaret Atwood. It was heartening to see her love of birds. Yes, we do share this world with other creatures.
Alice Shore
Some clucks given
January 2019
The modern-day meat chicken needs to become forcibly extinct before we can seriously talk about broiler welfare. (No clucks given: chicken welfare not an industry priority)
For nothing but greed, “broilers” have been abnormally bred to balloon to adult size in just six weeks, creating enormous health problems.
Unable to support their heavy bodies, their baby legs become crippled, and birds, unable to reach food and water, die slowly of starvation and thirst.
Others die from heart failure and pulmonary oedema, a condition where their lungs fill with fluid and birds slowly suffocate or “drown”.
Almost all birds are in chronic pain by the time they reach slaughter weight.
If a genuine attempt is to be made to improve the welfare of meat chickens it is imperative that the breeding of these man-made monstrosities ceases. If we continue to allow meat chickens to be bred in this cruel manner, any discussion about their ”welfare” is a joke.
JennyMoxham
Chicken suffering
October 2018
Deliberately breeding birds in a manner known to cause them immense suffering should be regarded as a serious act of animal cruelty and punished accordingly. (Playing chicken with animal welfare)
Even though they are still blue-eyed babies when they reach slaughter weight at six weeks of age, almost every broiler chicken is in chronic pain due to their abnormal breeding. Many will have died in the sheds because their crippled legs prevented them from accessing food and water. Others will have died from heart disease and pulmonary oedema - a condition where their lungs fill with fluid and they slowly suffocate or "drown”.
Isn't it time we all helped end this cruelty by refusing to support this ruthless industry with our consumer dollar?.
Jenny Moxham
Grim life of the fowl
October 2018
As we celebrate National Bird Week (October 22-28) please spare a thought for the millions of Australian birds who never get to enjoy – even glimpse – the beautiful world in which they live.
They are never permitted to feel the warmth of the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air.
Their lives are short and painful and their deaths are brutal and terrifying.
I'm referring, of course, to the millions of birds reared in Australia each year for their flesh and eggs.
The 551 million "broiler" chickens, the 9 million "battery" hens and the 12 million "useless" male chicks who are minced up alive on day one of their lives.
Each year, worldwide, more than 50 billion chickens are condemned to this life of severe deprivation inside grim, cramped sheds, turning into a joke our expression "as free as a bird'.
Jenny Moxham
A cracking solution
September 2018
Australian's are being warned about an outbreak of salmonella enteritidis, which has led to a recall of eggs.
Symptoms include fever, headache, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. There is a simple solution: don’t eat eggs.
Birds exploited for their eggs are crammed together in wire cages, without sufficient room to even spread one wing. Because the hens are packed together so tightly, these normally clean animals are forced to urinate and defecate on one another.
The birds have part of their sensitive beaks cut off so that they won’t peck each other out of the frustration created by this unnatural confinement.
Because the male chicks of these birds are unable to lay eggs and are not bred to produce the excessive flesh demanded by the meat industry, they are gassed to death with carbon dioxide or ground up alive immediately after hatching.
Females follow their mothers into a short, miserable life of confinement. After their bodies are worn out and their egg production drops, they are transported to slaughter. It is common for birds to sustain broken wings and legs from rough handling, and many die from the stress of the journey.
At the abattoir, the birds’ legs are forced into shackles, their throats are cut and they are plunged into scalding-hot water to remove their feathers. If you want to dodge food poisoning, and save up to 200 chickens from this grisly fate every year, avoid eggs like the plague.
Desmond Bellamy PETA Australia
More a chicken or cruelty question
June 2018
The healthiness or lack of it in consuming eggs should be irrelevant. The discussion we should be having is whether we have a right to condemn millions of inoffensive little birds to a life of hell, culminating with a brutal, agonising and terrifying death, simply because we enjoy the taste of their eggs.
Not only are laying hens deprived of all semblance of a natural life, the majority is deprived of sunshine, fresh air and space to exercise. They confined in small, cramped cages. At the slaughterhouse, those who succeed in avoiding the stun-bath and automated throat-cutter are simultaneously drowned and boiled in the scalding tank.
Although we’ve been conditioned from childhood to regard eggs as a “natural” human food, eggs were never designed to be food for anyone. They are simply part of a bird’s reproductive process – the jelly-, membrane- and albumin-filled sac in which a chick embryo develops. The question we should be asking is not is it healthy to consume eggs, but is it cruel to consume them. We should also be asking ourselves if we really want to consume a waste product expelled from a female’s bottom.
Jenny Moxham
Dumped on roadsides
June 2018
Chickens and roosters do not deserve to be dumped on roadsides – but neither do they deserve to be culled.(Too chicken to kill but not to dump.)
No chicken, anywhere, deserves to suffer simply because we have a acquired a taste for their eggs. Although we’ve been conditioned to view eggs as a natural human food – a staple, in fact -eggs were never designed to be food for anyone.
They are simply part of a birds reproductive process; the jelly, membrane and albumin filled sac in which a chick embryo develops. Think about it. Do you really think man’s natural food would be a waste product expelled from a female’s bottom?
Jenny Moxham
Kinder world
March 2018
Congratulations to Rebekah Sharkie in her move to make life less crowded for "free-range" hens. A move to a kinder world.
For years the World Health Organisation has been advising a plant-based diet. A more ethical move by the Thomas Foods Industry management would be to expand into vegetarian burgers and slowly eliminate meat production, showing concern for the quality of life on our overcrowded planet.
Alice Shore
Feathers Fly
March 2018
I am one of the vegans whose ".. feathers fly as vegans get in a flap over Womad spectacle," as tonnes of feathers were sprayed over the audience.
Gentle birds are treated as commodities, and yes, some feathers are technically 'by products' of the chicken and egg industries, that are stripped from the birds in scalding tanks. These industries are the largest exploiters of chickens and ducks, as they all require enslavement and eventual premature death.
Billions of birds are abused for their flesh, eggs, foie gras and feathers. Many feathers are stripped from ducks, geese and swans by 'live plucking,' without anaesthetic or sterilisation, where birds are held down by their necks and wings as the targeted breast feathers are torn from their skin, often causing open wounds, broken wings and bones.
The cruel process is repeated every 6 to 7 weeks. We have no need of feathers or down to be warm in our homes or clothing, as warm animal friendly alternatives are available made from bamboo, hemp and coconut fibres.
Diane Cornelius