Chickens are the most abused animals on the planet!

In the wild, chickens like to dust-bathe, turkeys fly considerable distances, and ducks spend most of their lives on water. But in poultry farms, thousands are crammed together in dark sheds, unable to express their natural instincts. They are forced to stand and lie down in their own waste, as the litter on the barn floor is never changed. The ammonia that builds up in such environments often burns away their breast feathers and causes ulcers on their legs. The birds are fattened up so quickly that their legs may not be able to carry the weight of their ballooning bodies. Each year, millions die from thirst and hunger because they collapse under the strain and are unable to drag themselves to the food and water units. Ninety-nine percent of these animals spend their lives in total confinement from the moment they hatch until the day they are killed. Chickens raised on factory farms never have the chance to do anything that is natural or important to them. A baby chick on a factory farm will never be allowed contact with his or her parents, let alone be raised by them. These chickens are deprived of the chance to take dust baths, feel the sun on their backs, breathe fresh air, roost in trees, or build nests. Chickens raised for their flesh, called "broilers" by the chicken industry, spend their entire lives in filthy sheds with tens of thousands of other birds, where intense crowding and confinement lead to outbreaks of disease. They're given steroids to grow bigger than their ancestors so they can be slaughtered sooner. They are bred and drugged to grow so large so quickly that their legs and organs can't keep up, making heart attacks, organ failure, and crippling leg deformities common. Many become crippled under their own weight and eventually die because they can't reach the water nozzles. When they are only 6 or 7 weeks old, they are crammed into cages and trucked to slaughter. Birds exploited for their eggs, called "laying hens" by the industry, are crammed together in wire cages where they don't even have enough room to spread their wings. Because the hens are crammed so closely together, 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 frustration created by the unnatural confinement. After their bodies are exhausted and their production drops, they are shipped to slaughter, generally to be turned into chicken soup or cat or dog food because their flesh is too bruised and battered to be used for much else. The recognition of how horrible the short lives of battery hens are has led many people to stop contributing to this atrocity by simply not buying those eggs. Unfortunately, many other people have looked to so called "Cage-Free/Free-Range" eggs as an acceptable and humane

alternative. Sadly the public is led to believe that "Cage-Free" hens live a happy, natural life. Unless you buy your eggs from a local family that actually does let these beautiful birds run free, this is simply not so! "Cage-Free"/"Free-Range" hens come from the same hatcheries that battery hens come from, they are simply crammed together shoulder to shoulder in dark, dank sheds, sans the cages. And they ALL ultimately end up at the same slaughterhouses when their "production" declines. When their egg production falls, chickens are slammed into small crates and trucked to the slaughterhouse through all weather extremes. Hundreds of millions suffer broken wings and legs from rough handling, and millions die from the stress of the journey. At the slaughterhouse, their legs are forced into shackles, their throats are cut, and they are immersed in scalding-hot water to remove their feathers. Chickens are exempt from the Humane Slaughter Act, along with rabbits and fish. Almost all chickens are still conscious when their throats are cut, and many are literally scalded to death in the feather-removal tanks after missing the throat cutter. Love eggs and think their are no victims when you eat them? But have you asked yourself, when they breed new chickens as egg layers, what happens to male chickens? Fifty percent of new chicks allowed to hatch are male. Because the male chicks of egg-laying breeder hens are unable to lay eggs and are not bred to produce excessive flesh for the meat industry, they are killed. These young birds are ground up alive or tossed into bags to suffocate. Yes it's true. It's the egg industry's dirty little secret. Watch and see! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JJ--faib7to Thrown, dropped, mutilated, and ground-up alive. This is the disturbing reality faced by hundreds of thousands of chicks each day at the world's largest egg-laying breed hatchery HyLine International in Spencer, Iowa. A hidden camera footage obtained at this facility during a MercyForAnimals.org undercover investigation gives a disturbing glimpse into the cruel and industrialized reality of modern hatcheries. The warm, comforting, and protective wings of these newly hatched chicks' mothers have been replaced with massive machines, quickly moving conveyor belts, harsh handling, and distressing noise. These young animals are sorted, discarded, and handled like mere cogs in a machine. For the nearly 150,000 male chicks who hatch every 24 hours at this Hy-Line facility, their lives begin and end the same day. The total number of sweet little one-day old chicks who are ground up alive in the United States is over 300 million... so yes, there are victims in the egg industry and they are the most innocent of creatures... little babies. Grabbed by their fragile

wings by workers known as "sexers," who separate males from females, these young animals are callously thrown into chutes and hauled away to their deaths. They are destined to die on day one because they cannot produce eggs and do not grow large or fast enough to be raised profitably for meat. Their lives are cut short when they are dropped into a grinding machine tossed around by a spinning auger before being torn to pieces by a high-pressure macerator. Over 21 million male chicks meet their fate this way each year at just this one facility. For the surviving females, this is the beginning of a life of cruelty and confinement at the hands of the egg industry. Before even leaving the hatchery they will be snapped by their heads into a spinning debeaker a portion of their sensitive beaks removed by a laser. Workers toss and rummage through them before they are placed 100 per crowded box and shipped across the country. The callous disregard for animal welfare at this facility is not isolated. In fact, the conditions documented during this investigation are completely standard and acceptable within the commercial egg industry. Referred to by Hy-Line corporate leaders as mere "genetic products," these chicks are treated just as they are viewed as inanimate objects, rather than the sentient creatures they are. Driven by consumer demand, the egg industry will continue to exploit, abuse, and kill day-old animals as long as doing so remains profitable. Empowered consumers can put their ethics on the table by choosing kindness over cruelty at each meal by adopting an animal-friendly vegan diet. Please say NO to chicken-meat - Please say NO to eggs!