Hen Abuse at large contract farm in Maine-GRAPHIC VIDEO

A private investigator shot footage of brutal conditions for the FOUR MILLION hens that live on the Turner Egg Farm in Maine. The video documented incidents of workers whipping the hens around by their necks in attempts to kill them, often leaving the animals to die slowly of their injuries. The film further documents animals being forced to lay eggs in cages containing rotting corpses of birds that could not reach food and water because they were so tightly packed into the wire cages.

http://www.wmtw.com/news/19074169/detail.html

Spokesperson Bob LeClerc had this to say regarding the PI who shot the video:
"I was shocked to see we hired a fraud. Instead of taking care of the birds, he did his best to not to that. I find it inappropriate for someone to take money from a company to do a job and not do it."

Alrighty Then. Please stop reading here if you would like to avoid my rant...

RANT: Let's take a moment to consider the fact that the we consume the by-product of the misery of these animals. What does this do to the quality of the food product on a cellular level? What is the genetic health that is passed along to the egg we eat if it's host has chronic disease and stress hormones that are off the charts? Not to mention the antibiotics consumed by the animal to increase its productive laying life. WAKE UP, please. Avoid feeding this machine by buying local eggs from reputable farms or organic free-range. NOT just free range, which means the animal can be kept in similar conditions but is let out for a period of time during the day. Pay a little more for your eggs and milk-go a little cheaper on some of the other products on your grocery list to balance it out. Think of it like a puppy mill...JMO.

This happens all the time in about every major factory farm in this country and around the world. Chickens have it really bad. Cows are pumped full of so many hormones they cannot even support their own weight and they lay around with broken bones. Some of them are pulled around by a chain around their neck. They are strung up by one leg while still alive and sometimes left like that before someone kills it. Pigs are stuffed into tiny cages where they can barely move. Pigs are highly intelligent animals and many of them literally lose their minds. Sows are pumped full of hormones so they can birth tons of piglets who are immediately taken away from their mother after birth and thrown into another pen.
Chickens are treated with no regard whatsoever and many of them are crushed to death in their pens, covered in feces, they lash out at eachother fighting viciously, they are tossed around like nothing.
Many factory farm animals are abused because it's 'fun.'
The standards are so low in this country because companies want to keep it cheap. There is always going to be a meat industry but we need to put some strict regulations into place to ensure these animals are not being tortured and abused.
This is the reason I cannot eat meat.
HBO just did a documentary with the same guy who did Dealing Dogs (horrible) called Death on a Factory Farm which was all about this issue.

If we want to talk about farms let me mention FUR FARMS. Hell on earth. The fact that it is LEGAL in this country to treat animals the way these minks, foxes, rabbits are treated is unbelievable. To cut costs many of these animals are skinned alive.
They live their whole lives stuffed into tiny cages, many of them with disease, many of them with broken bones, they are mistreated by the people who work there. All so someone can have fur on their coat.

An underground investigation just revealed that in China over 200 MILLION dogs, cats, puppies and kittens are being butchered for their fur. They are ALL being skinned alive. As many as 20 cats are shoved in tiny cages, same with dogs, forced to travel days with no food or water, when they are unloaded they are thrown 10 ft down from the dock spot breaking bones. Many of these animals still have their collars on. They have been stolen. After these animals are tortured, skinned alive and many of them continue to live for up to half an hour after being skinned their fur is shipped back to US distributors.

Sorry to go on. This whole issue is a big problem for me. Animals, ALL ANIMALS, should have rights.

I have personally visited farms where chickens and cattle are raised and it is nothing like pictured in these posts. I do not think the majority of people raising them treat them that badly. The chicken farmers I know have several people working to keep them fed and cared for. That is their way of making a living and they take care of the animals. I think sometimes those against eating meat find the worst examples they can find and try to make us think they are all like that. A lot of beef cattle are raised in my area and I see them grazing in pastures. If people do not want to eat meat that is their privilege, but it is ridiculous to try to make people who do eat meat feel guilty because someone manages to find pictures of some that were mistreated.

Annie said:

I have personally visited farms where chickens and cattle are raised and it is nothing like pictured in these posts. I do not think the majority of people raising them treat them that badly. The chicken farmers I know have several people working to keep them fed and cared for. That is their way of making a living and they take care of the animals. I think sometimes those against eating meat find the worst examples they can find and try to make us think they are all like that. A lot of beef cattle are raised in my area and I see them grazing in pastures. If people do not want to eat meat that is their privilege, but it is ridiculous to try to make people who do eat meat feel guilty because someone manages to find pictures of some that were mistreated.

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Annie I'm with you. My grandfather raised laying hens, thousands of them and I never saw anything like this. I think that this is the worst case. Before I go on yes I do believe this is terrible. This may really set some people off but, we live in a country where people are more concerned about the rights of animals than they are unborn children. There is something really twisted about that. Why in the world would we expect that animals would be treated with dignity? We don't even value the most vulnerable human beings in our society.

sleuthin4fun said:

I think that this is the worst case.

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Actually I think this is common in many very large operations which are more egg factories than farms, and managed as such

KarlK said:

Actually I think this is common in many very large operations which are more egg factories than farms, and managed as such

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You could very well be right. It is awful. Could make you want to go vegan!

I agree that this does happen and it is terrible, that's why I buy free range, egglands best or local eggs, though, I've never seen the farms and wonder if this happens with the eggs I buy
This is a little off topic, but, I couldn't help but wonder if those workers with the spanish accents were here legally. The employees must really hate their jobs to treat another living creature like that.

Sleuthin4fun and Annie- I live in New England farm country and there's a world of difference between a "farmer with a farm" and a "farm factory". I believe that most farmers are quite humane (and broke). Farm factories are another story and these people do their darndest to keep outsiders off of the property. I think it's important to distinguish that difference because even though it seems like this thread has conflicting posts, both views are correct and not really opposing. I would love to see small farms and farmers valued and supported for their quality and humane treatment of animals while I would like to see farm factories all shut down.

DBinMA said:

Sleuthin4fun and Annie- I live in New England farm country and there's a world of difference between a "farmer with a farm" and a "farm factory". I believe that most farmers are quite humane (and broke). Farm factories are another story and these people do their darndest to keep outsiders off of the property. I think it's important to distinguish that difference because even though it seems like this thread has conflicting posts, both views are correct and not really opposing. I would love to see small farms and farmers valued and supported for their quality and humane treatment of animals while I would like to see farm factories all shut down.

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Factory farms are a huge issue across the US food chain-regardless if we are talking about chickens, cows or pigs...from the disposal of the waste to the disposal of the carcasses-ask anyone who lives in a community where they reside.

I used to live in a rural area, and one day passed the local cattle butchering/processing plant where some dead cattle had arrived. I don't know if they got processed or not. I'm a meat eater, and that sure made me think twice about the meat I eat.

That place did go out of business, thankfully.

Thank you for the wake-up call. I had no idea. I will definitely make a change. I keep thinking about that poor, sweet chicken they kept showing at the end.

Annie said:

I have personally visited farms where chickens and cattle are raised and it is nothing like pictured in these posts. I do not think the majority of people raising them treat them that badly. The chicken farmers I know have several people working to keep them fed and cared for. That is their way of making a living and they take care of the animals. I think sometimes those against eating meat find the worst examples they can find and try to make us think they are all like that. A lot of beef cattle are raised in my area and I see them grazing in pastures. If people do not want to eat meat that is their privilege, but it is ridiculous to try to make people who do eat meat feel guilty because someone manages to find pictures of some that were mistreated.

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We are talking about factory farms - BIG farms. Not smaller, family owned or otherwise. The smaller farms tend to treat their animals much, much better because they are not dealing with them on massive scales. Many animals on smaller farms are free-range, cage-free etc. Huge factory farms are putting smaller farmers out of business not to mention the horrible effect it has on the environment and the way the animals are treated.

I don't think any of us were implying that people who eat meat are mean. I just think it is important to be aware of where your meat is coming from. Think about huge companies like Tyson. They are dealing with millions of chickens as opposed to 25 and the standards are much, much lower.

I support small farmers because their farms are more ethical and because I will support a small business over giant corporations any day.

I don't know if I can even watch the video... but just from reading the comments here --> it makes me even more thankful that we just got our first 10 pullets last week. Hopefully within ~5 months, we'll have our own eggs so I won't have to buy them from the grocery store anymore.

Poor, poor factory farm animals.

I could not watch the video but I think this happens way too often. Yes, I am sure there are lots of reputable farms where the animals are treated humanely but even one farm that abuses the animals is one too many. Although I haven't eaten any kind of meat (including seafood and chicken) in 23 years I do eat eggs and drink milk. This is a good reason for me to make the extra stop at the organic farm down the street for my eggs.

I can't watch the video either. I watched one video about the reality of slaughterhouses and factory farms and it was quite honestly one of the worst things I have ever seen in my life. I bawled about it for days and tried so hard to put those images out of mind. That is when I became a vegetarian for good.

We also need to be cognizant of where we are getting our dairy too. Dairy cows on factory farms are treated horribly as well. Fortunately there are a lot more options these days to buy organic dairy, eggs and meat. It is only a little more money and the difference it could make if we all started doing it would be huge.

The passing of Proposition 2 in California last year was huge because it is setting a precident and other states will be much more likely to follow suit.

The UN released a 600 page document in 2006 that went largly unnoticed. It outlined how and why livestock emissions are the number one cause of greenhouse gas.
Some of the statistics are unbelievable. Cattle Grazing land takes up 26% of the earth's surface - I had no idea. Think of all the forests that have been destroyed, animals who have been killed or starved, indigenous people run out of their lands. It is really pretty scary and definitely sad.
You can view the document here or read the highlights
http://www.worldalmanac.com/blog/2007/01/livestocks_long_shadow_1.html



Really nice article in the LA Times about global warming and the livestock industry. Because the agricultural industry is such a big gov't lobbysit it has been virtually ignored. Even Al Gore, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, failed to mention the effects in his documentary and various books.
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/oct/15/opinion/ed-methane15