1. 'Bird Brain' Is a Compliment
Several recent studies have shown that chickens are bright animals, able to
solve complex problems, demonstrate self-control, and worry about the future.
Chickens are smarter than cats or dogs and even do some things that have not yet
been seen in mammals other than primates. Dr. Chris Evans, who studies animal
behavior and communication at Macquarie University in Australia, says, "As a
trick at conferences, I sometimes list these attributes, without mentioning
chickens, and people think I'm talking about monkeys." Dr. John Webster of
Bristol University found that chickens are capable of understanding cause and
effect and that when chickens learn something new, they pass on that knowledge
(i.e., they have what scientists call "culture").
2. All Drugged Up
Quite simply, chickens are the most abused animals on the planet. Chickens
raised for their flesh are packed by the thousands into massive sheds. They are
fed large amounts of antibiotics and drugs to keep them alive in conditions that
would otherwise kill them. The antibiotics make chickens grow so large, so fast
that they often become crippled under their own weight. This reckless use of
antibiotics also makes drugs less effective for treating humans by speeding up
the development of drug-resistant bacteria.
3. Scalded to Death
Only seven weeks after they are born, chickens are crowded onto trucks that
transport them to the slaughterhouse. Tens of millions of chickens have their
wings and legs broken in the process every year. They are trucked through all
weather extremes, sometimes over hundreds of miles, without any food or water.
At slaughter, chickens are hung upside-down and have their throats slit, and
they are often scalded to death in defeathering tanks.
4. They Don't Even Get a Lawyer
The billions of chickens killed each year are not protected by a single
federal law—the "Humane Slaughter Act" exempts birds, even though there are more
than 55 times as many chickens slaughtered each year as pigs and cows combined!
Chickens raised for their flesh have their sensitive beaks cut off with a hot
blade without any painkillers. These intelligent animals spend their entire
lives in filthy sheds with tens of thousands of other birds, each getting about
as much space as a sheet of paper, where intense crowding and confinement lead
to outbreaks of disease. If factory-farm owners treated cats and dogs like they
treat chickens, they would go to jail for cruelty to animals.
5. Do You Want Poop With That?
A USDA study found that more than 99 percent of broiler chicken carcasses
sold in stores had detectable levels of
E. coli, indicating fecal
contamination. In other words, if you're eating chicken flesh, you're almost
certainly eating poop.
Consumer Reports states there are "1.1 million or
more Americans sickened each year by undercooked, tainted chicken." Chicken
flesh is also loaded with dangerous levels of arsenic, which can cause cancer,
dementia, neurological problems, and other ailments in humans.
Men's Health
magazine recently ranked supermarket chicken number one in their list of the
"10 Dirtiest Foods" because of the high rate of bacterial contamination.
6. Lose the grease, Avoid the Flu
Both the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization say
that if the
avian flu
virus spreads to the United States, it could be caught simply by eating
undercooked chicken flesh or eggs, eating food prepared on the same cutting
board as infected meat or eggs, or even touching eggshells contaminated with the
disease. Chicken flesh and eggs are packed with cholesterol—a 3-ounce piece of
skinless chicken breast meat has as much cholesterol as beef, and just one egg
has nearly three times as much! This cholesterol, along with a high intake of
animal fats, blocks arteries and causes
heart disease. Vegan
foods, on the other hand, are all cholesterol-free and much lower in fat!
7. The Most Dangerous Factory Job in America
According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics,
slaughterhouse workers are more than three times more likely to suffer injuries
while working than workers in other manufacturing jobs, and they suffer a rate
of repetitive stress injury that is 35 times higher than that in other
manufacturing jobs. The industry refuses to make working conditions safer by
slowing line speeds or buying appropriate safety gear, which amounts to what
Human Rights Watch calls "systematic human rights violations embedded in meat
and poultry industry employment." Big chicken companies such as Tyson and Perdue
also exploit contract factory-farm operators, whom Auburn University economist
Robert Taylor calls "serfs with a mortgage." Contract factory farmers are forced
to foot the bill for building and maintaining massive factory farms, which puts
them deeply into debt and can drive them to financial ruin if their company
cancels future contracts with them.
8. Motherly Love
In a natural setting, a hen will cluck to her chicks before they even hatch
while she sits on the eggs in her nest. They peep back to her and to each other
through their shells. In factory farms, eggs are taken from the mother as soon
as they are laid and put in large incubators—a chick will never meet his or her
parents. Hens prefer to have private nests hidden from predators and will often
go without food or water in order to obtain a private nest. This demonstrates
the fact that hens will sacrifice their own comfort if it means protecting their
chicks.
9. Chicken Shit
Raising 9 billion chickens in factory farms each year produces enormous
amounts of excrement. Oregon State University agriculture professor Peter Cheeke
says that factory farming amounts to "a frontal assault on the environment,"
which leads to widespread fecal ground and water pollution. Because chickens are
fed massive amounts of drugs and pesticides, these chemicals are also found in
high concentrations in their feces, which means that fecal pollution from
chicken farms is especially disastrous for the environment. In West Virginia and
Maryland, for example, scientists have recently discovered that male fish are
growing ovaries, and they suspect that this freakish deformity is the result of
factory-farm runoff from drug-laden chicken feces.
10. Better Than the Original
Do you like the taste of chicken flesh but don't like the suffering? No
problem—try some of the fantastic alternatives now available, such as
Boca Chik'n Nuggets, Gardenburger's Meatless Buffalo Chicken Wings, and
Yves Veggie Chicken Burgers.
These super-tasty foods are high in protein,
cruelty- and cholesterol- free, and available at your local supermarket. Instead
of eggs, try tofu scramble, whip up some vegan French toast, or check out our egg-free baking
tips.
