The short, miserable lives of Indian Chickens
Every year in India alone, more than a billion chickens are slaughtered for food. By the year 2020, the growing demand for chicken meat is expected to more than double that number. Shy and sensitive animals, chickens spend their unnaturally short, miserable lives crammed together in windowless sheds on poultry farms, designed for maximum space utilisation per rupee.
WHAT IS A 'BROILER' CHICKEN?
"Broiler" chickens are raised and killed for their flesh. They are fed growth promoters and bred to grow so large, so fast that often their legs cannot support their weight. They are forced to live by the tens of thousands in filthy sheds, full of their own excrement, where they are so cramped that they cannot turn around or even spread a wing (each one has less space than an A4 sheet of paper). The birds are subjected to continuous bright lights for the first two weeks of their lives. Then the lights are switched on and off every two hours to control their eating patterns. Eventually, the birds become so stressed that the lights have to be turned off completely to calm them down. When they are between 36 and 42 days old, they are killed (chickens can live for more than a decade).
Then the birds are caught by their legs and thrown into the back of a lorry, crammed together, hung upside-down on the back of a bicycle or auto rickshaw or stuffed into a basket for a nightmarish ride to the abattoir, always without food or water. There, the birds' legs are clamped into shackles, and they are suspended upside-down. Their throats are slit, often while they are fully conscious.
A quick look around your neighbourhood at your local "broiler" chicken stall will reveal birds kept in rusted, filthy wire cages, most of the time with no water or feed. These chickens are on public display so that a customer can choose a bird and have him or her slaughtered and plucked on the spot. Even children are subjected to the sight of this gruesome act, rendering them insensitive to the suffering of another being.
HOW DOES EGG PRODUCTION WORK?
Only female chicks are useful to the egg industry. Male chicks are thrown into plastic bags to suffocate, or they are decapitated, asphyxiated or blown up in decompression chambers.
Eggs are as Vegetarian as your chicken tikka or a mutton burger. They are a part of the chicken's reproductive system. To produce eggs, the birds are forced to spend their entire lives in battery cages housed in dark, crowded sheds, where they are treated as egg-laying machines. Baby birds have their beaks cut off with a red-hot blade. Young layer hens are kept in complete darkness except at feeding time. When they reach the egg-laying stage, they are subjected to harsh and continuous light, sometimes for up to 22 hours a day. After their tired and worn-out bodies stop laying eggs and are no longer useful for egg production. they are sold for slaughter.
CHICKEN IS NOT HEALTH FOOD
Consider this: Chicken contains as much artery-clogging cholesterol as beef, and a single egg is loaded with more than 200 milligrams of cholesterol. Because of the crowded conditions on factory farms, bacteria like salmonella and campylobacter spread like wildfire. Since eggshells are porous, bacteria easily pass through, infecting the eggs. Campylobacter causes more food poisoning in the UK than any other bacteria, and the Food Standards Agency identifies chicken as a major source. A large percentage of chickens have a cancer called leukosis, while Indian chickens often suffer from cholera. Eating eggs can also lead to joint problems like rheumatism in old age and cause allergies like hives.
While even registered slaughterhouses blatantly ignore hygiene standards, there are thousands of illegal slaughterhouses in India that are not even inspected and are appallingly filthy, resulting in chicken flesh that is often contaminated with faeces and bacteria. Even when there are cases of consumers' dying or falling ill after eating rotten chicken, meat-sellers continue to do a lot of business, mainly because of people's lack of awareness.
CHICKENS: NO 'BIRD BRAINS'
Chickens are inquisitive and interesting animals who are thought to be as intelligent as cats, dogs and even primates. When in their natural surroundings-away from factory farms - they form friendships and social hierarchies, recognize one another and develop pecking orders, love and care for their young and enjoy a full life that includes dust-bathing, making nests, roosting in trees and more.
WHAT YOU CAN DO :
If you want to make sure a chicken dinner will not poison your family - throw it away! Better yet, do not buy it in the first place.
And for more such truths, log on to
www.PETAIndia.com
