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a bird's life
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Thousands of chickens are crowded into filthy, ammonia-laden sheds. |
Thousands of chickens are crowded into filthy, ammonia-laden sheds.
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Many birds are unable to stand due to leg disorders induced by unnatural weight. |
Many birds are unable to stand due to leg disorders induced by unnatural weight.
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Turkeys and chickens often suffer from untreated open bloody sores and wounds. |
Turkeys and chickens often suffer from untreated open bloody sores and wounds.
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Chickens are gathered hastily, up to eight at a time. Their legs and wings often break in the process. |
Chickens are gathered hastily, up to eight at a time. Their legs and wings often break in the process.
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Chickens shackled by their ankles upside-down to a moving conveyor belt. |
Chickens shackled by their ankles upside-down to a moving conveyor belt.
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'broiler' chickens are slaughtered when they are 45 days old; turkeys at 20 weeks.
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As more and more people are switching from beef to poultry, the number of birds raised and killed for meat is sky-rocketing.
More than 8 billion "broiler" (meat-type) chickens and over 270 million turkeys are slaughtered each year in the United States.[1]
Overcrowded by the thousands into ammonia-laden sheds where disease runs rampant, the birds often cannot even flap their wings.[2,3] Most will never see sunlight or breathe fresh air, except on their way to the slaughterhouse.
The birds are forced to breathe air from oxygen-deficient sheds, full of pathogenic microbes, carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen sulfide, excretory ammonia fumes, and lung-destroying dust and dander. The high ammonia levels cause painful skin and respiratory problems for the birds.[4]
Chickens have been genetically manipulated to grow much quicker and larger than their ancestors. According to a May 26, 1997 article in Feedstuffs, an agribusiness journal, "...broilers now grow so rapidly that the heart and lungs are not developed well enough to support the remainder of the body, resulting in congestive heart failure and tremendous death losses."
Modern broiler chickens also experience crippling leg disorders and lameness, as their legs are not capable of supporting their abnormally heavy bodies.
Researchers have found that this lameness is so chronically painful that lame chickens will repeatedly choose food that has painkillers added to it over regular feed.[5] Another study found that 26% of broiler chickens are severely crippled and that 90% cannot walk normally.[6]
Turkeys also suffer from unnatural breeding. According to another Feedstuffs article, "turkeys have been bred to grow faster and heavier but their skeletons haven’t kept pace, which causes ‘cowboy legs’. Some turkeys have problems standing and fall and are trampled on..." [7]
Those who don't die on the factory farm are shipped to the slaughterhouse at just a fraction of their natural lifespan. At the slaughterhouse, fully conscious chickens and turkeys are shackled by their ankles upside-down to a moving conveyor belt. The birds are then given intensely painful electric shocks[8], which are intended to immobilize them to make it easier to slit their throats.[9] The shocks are frequently not powerful enough to render them unconscious.[10] After being shocked, the birds' throats are slashed, usually by a mechanical blade, and blood begins rushing out of their bodies.
Inevitably, the blade misses some birds who then proceed to the next station on the assembly line: the scalding tank. According to USDA statistics, millions of birds every year have their bodies submerged in scalding hot water (about 143° F) while they are fully conscious.[11,12,13] According to Virgil Butler, a former Tyson slaughterhouse worker, "When this happens, the chickens flop, scream, kick, and their eyeballs pop out of their heads. Then, they often come out the other end with broken bones and disfigured and missing body parts because they've struggled so much in the tank."
Poultry are not protected under the Humane Slaughter Act or the Animal Welfare Act.
 | Chickens are inquisitive animals, who when in natural surroundings enjoy dust-bathing, making nests, roosting in trees, and searching for food.
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Like us, chickens form friendships and strong family ties. They love their young and mourn the loss of loved ones.
According to animal behaviorist Dr. Chris Evans, chickens are as smart as mammals, including some primates. He explains that chickens are able to understand that recently hidden objects still exist, which is beyond the capacity of small children. Furthermore, Dr. Joy Mench, professor and director of the Center for Animal Welfare at the University of California at Davis explains, “Chickens show sophisticated social behavior. They can recognize more than a hundred other chickens and remember them. They have more than thirty types of vocalizations."
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