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Chickens

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Revision as of 08:12, 10 June 2019 by Greg.Fuller (talk | contribs) (Mass Slaughter Soon after Hatching)

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General Information

It's commonly thought that the domesticated chickens used for meat and eggs are primarily descended from the Red Jungle Fowl of Southeast Asia. More recent research paints a more complex picture—birds from India, Cambodia, Ceylon, and other areas may also be involved in the lineage.[1]

Early interest in these birds centered around cockfighting, but later the bird became domesticated for eggs and meat. Chickens were used widely in Southeast Asia, India, Tibet, and the islands of the Pacific. By the sixth century B.C. Egyptians were using chickens for religious sacrifices and cockfighting, and by the third century they were being used for their meat and eggs. Chickens were a common fixture Greek life. After being shown a chicken, Plato defined humans in terms of the chickens as "bipeds without feathers". Their exploitation in the West spread from Greece to Rome and then on to Europe. [2]

Sentience and Cognition

Humane Labels and Certifications

Suffering and Violence

Mass Slaughter of Males

Because laying hens are bred specifically to lay eggs, males hatched from the laying hen variety of chicken are not profitable—they don't yield sufficient meat and they can't lay eggs. And because they are not profitable, the males are ground alive in a macerator, gassed, or suffocated, shortly after they are hatched. This industry refers to this practice as chick culling. (Weak and struggling females are also discarded in this manner.[3])

Hatchlings are about 50% male and 50% female. So statistically speaking, every laying hen has a brother who has been violently slaughtered. This is true even for backyard chickens, as the female hatchlings are sold not only to commercial producers, but individuals keeping backyard chickens.

In the United States, over 375 million male chicks are slaughtered via culling. Worldwide, it's in the billions.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag The Humane League reported |}

Dibilitating Selective Breeding

Debeaking

Debeaking is painful, causes lasting suffering, impairs feeding, eliminates exploratory pecking, and contributes to lice from impaired preening.[4]

Human Health and Nutrition

Footnotes

  1. Smith, Page, and Charles Daniel. The Chicken Book. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000, 11-13.
  2. ibid.,16-30.
  3. “What Happens with Male Chicks in the Egg Industry? – RSPCA Knowledgebase.” Accessed June 10, 2019. https://kb.rspca.org.au/knowledge-base/what-happens-with-male-chicks-in-the-egg-industry/
  4. “Welfare Implications of Beak Trimming.” American Veterinary Medical Association, February 7, 2010. https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/LiteratureReviews/Pages/beak-trimming-bgnd.aspx

Meta

This page was originally authored by Greg Fuller. The contents may have been edited since that time by others.

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