Start an Animal SanctuaryHow to Help Animals

In the UK there are various schemes to rehome at least some of the ex battery hens (spent hens) at the end of their working life, but here in Australia I am unaware of any such scheme. Once layers reach 2-3 years old (sometimes younger) they stop producing as many eggs and since the egg industry is all about profit, that means one thing…slaughter. I am interested in re-homing some of these old girls (actually not that old, since hens can live until about 12 years old).

I think by adopting some of these ‘spent hens’ I can help to educate people not only of the state of the hens once they have spent 2 years in a battery cage, but also how wonderful chickens are – as friends not food.

I decided to call my local battery farm and ask a few questions. I did not mention animal rights as I did not want to scare them off, instead I acted as an interested person who would like some chickens as pets. Considering this farmer has stated in a local paper that he, “loves the chickens” it was interesting to see how he was unable to envisage them as anything but profit making machines.

Me: Hi there, Just wondering whether you sell chickens there or just eggs?

Farmer: Yeah we sell chickens too. There’s a waiting list though, so…

Me: Um a waiting list? Is that for new chickens coming in?

Farmer: Yeah they’re young birds. Should be delivered end of July.

Me: Sorry, I was enquiring about the old birds. You know the ones who aren’t as productive anymore. Do you sell any of those?

Farmer: Oh…the old ones. Well we’re getting rid of the old ones in July, but they don’t lay many eggs anymore so you won’t want them.

Me: That’s ok, I was just looking for them as pets, so I’m not really worried about eggs.

Farmer: You don’t seem to understand…These are old hens, they won’t lay eggs and you will still have to feed them. They look really old.

Me: That’s fine by me I don’t mind about the eggs. How old are they?

Farmer: They’re 2, some could be 3 years old, but they look old you know?

Me: Yeah I understand. So how long do chickens live for?

Farmer: Well they live forever, but you still have to feed them and you don’t get any eggs in return, so there’s no point… Anyway these old birds are going to the Land of God.

Me: Right. So would I be able to get some of those birds that are being sent off?

Farmer: Hang on… (Yells off into distance) Hey…Are we going to sell any of the old ones?

Farmer: (to me) No not now, you would have to phone back mid July. You should just get the young chickens that way you can get eggs. I’ll put you down for that. Otherwise it’s like throwing food into a bin and not getting anything back.

Me: (think to myself – well I would save a happy little life) OK I’ll phone back at the beginning of July, but I am interested in the old chickens. The ones that are being sent to slaughter.

Farmer: Well maybe I could sell them for a dollar, but you will probably regret it when you don’t get any eggs. You do realise that you have to feed chickens? Even if they don’t lay eggs?

Me: Yes, thank you for your time. I will talk to you in July.

I think we both left that conversation feeling a bit confused. All I know is that after suffering in a cage for 2 years these hens deserve a break.

Do you ever feel like a total freak? I think most vegans have at one time or another felt that way. Whether it is in the company of family who still believe you are going through a phase or friends who tease you about being a plant killer, going vegan can make you feel like the only compassionate person in a world full of ignorance.

That is why reading Vegan Freak by Bob and Jenna Torres was refreshing. Reading it, I felt like I was in good company and not the only one who has to deal with meat-pushing family and friends. In fact there were many moments in the book when I found myself thinking, “Yes! I have felt that way!” The book is written in a conversational style and despite dealing with serious subject matter the authors have the talent of injecting a healthy dose of humor into their writing. Some parts of the book had me laughing out loud.

Vegan Freak appealed to me because it is aimed at people who are vegan, or who want to become vegan for ethical reasons. Sometimes it feels like all the books on veganism are about health, weight loss and spiritual benefits. I’m not knocking those things, but it was nice to read a book by people who are vegan for the same reasons I am – for the animals.

An important point that was drummed home throughout Vegan Freak was that “meek vegans suffer”. As a natural people pleaser I sometimes find it hard to tell people I am vegan. It’s not that I’m ashamed (quite the contrary), but I hate putting them out or making them feel bad. Vegan Freak showed me that I can be polite and still let people know about my dietary requirements. In ‘Chapter 2 – In Which We Get All AR On You’  the authors discuss the basics of why people become vegan and I surprised myself by learning something new about gross hidden animal ingredients that I wasn’t aware of before. I guess I will be checking ingredients even more carefully in the future.

If you have a sense of humor and you aren’t afraid of laughing at yourself you will love this book, but if you take yourself too seriously perhaps it won’t be for you. I noticed amongst the positive reviews on Amazon a few negative ones that didn’t seem to get the joke. It is important to remember that one book cannot cover everything on veganism and animal rights. Vegan Freak is not an in depth analysis of animal rights.  However, it does have a wonderful resource section, which has given me loads of new ideas for my book wish list.

So for vegans present and future who want to gain some skills for living in a non-vegan world I recommend you add this book to your vegan and animal rights collection and embrace your inner Vegan Freak.

Do you want to buy Vegan Freak? Click here.

An example of a free range farm

Everyone seems to know that free range eggs are more humane than those from battery farms, but in this article I want to take a look at why continuing to eat eggs (even free range) is contributing hugely to animal misery. Although free range is an important step in the right direction, meaning one kind of horrific abuse the hens will no longer have to endure, the only way to ensure chickens do not suffer is to stop eating eggs altogether.

Let’s take a look at why vegans do not eat eggs…

Would You Grind Up Baby Chicks Alive?

If you wouldn’t then you probably shouldn’t eat eggs. Battery farms, free range farms, barn laid farms, hobby farmers they all share one thing in common – they have to get their layer hens from somewhere. They order  their layer hens from companies who breed birds especially for the purpose of becoming commercial layers. The companies that produce these birds do so by mating two different breeds together. A hen from one breed and a rooster from another. They create the layer hen (a hybrid) for maximum amount of eggs for the

Discarded male chicks dead, dying, crushed

cheapest amount of money (food). The exact “formula” for the hybrid layer hen is a closely guarded secret by the industry.

When the chicks hatch they are sorted into males and females. Like every other part of the industry this is a clinical process and similar to the way factory workers would sort inanimate objects (eg screws and bolts). Before they are 72 hours old the chicks arrive on a conveyor belt and the females are sorted to one side and the males to the other. About half of the chicks are male.

Males are then killed, as there is no need for them in the industry. Their bodies are not suitable for meat, they are not used for breeding and they cannot lay eggs. Various farms use different methods to kill the chicks, although often the cheapest and easiest way will win.

Common Methods Include:

1. Crushing/Suffocation – Chicks are piled into garbage bags alive, where they are either crushed as more chicks are piled on top of them, or they suffocate in the bag. Chicks will try to make their way to the top, but will not succeed. They are treated as trash whilst still alive. Whilst some chicks are still alive these bags of chicks may be spread onto fields using machinery to fertilize crops.
2. Maceration – A high speed grinder is used. The chicks are dropped alive into the grinder.
3. Cervical Dislocation – Breaking the chicks neck (less common)
4. Electrocution - A new and apparently more humane method (not sure electrocution is all that humane. I’ve been shocked before and it didn’t feel good)
5. Gassing - The chicks are gassed to death. This is probably the most humane, most expensive and least used method of killing.

Bear in mind that if you are a backyard farmer and decide to avoid the cruelty above by buying fertilized eggs, rather than chicks and using an incubator to raise them, you will still need to rehome the roosters that will account for about half of your new chicks. The shelters are already overrun with roosters and often cannot keep more than a few at a time.

Want to check out a company that breeds layer hens? Click here.

Debeaking is Painful

For the female chickens the suffering is just getting started when they arrive at their new home, where they will live the next 1.5-2years of their life. In battery cages chickens are crammed together, so that they cannot even stretch their wings. The conditions of battery farms have been widely documented. Due to these cramped conditions the hens may

Debeaking is very painful for the chicks.

become aggressive and peck at each other. This is why debeaking is a universal practice amongst commercial poultry farmers.

The code of practice allows up to half of the upper beak to be removed and a third of the lower beak to be removed. Hot blades are used to remove part of the beak with no anesthetic. At first people believed that there was no feeling in a hen’s beak. However now we know better. This quote is from Wikipedia about chickens’ beaks:

The beak contains nociceptors that sense pain and noxious stimuli. Beak trimming excites nociceptors. Following a trim, the nociceptors in the beak stump show abnormal patterns of neural discharge, which has been interpreted as acute pain.

So basically is hurts like hell! Despite this knowledge debeaking is still common practice and it does not just happen on battery farms. Free range hens are not in cages, but they are often still very crowded together, which can result in cannibalism. Therefore debeaking is allowed and very commonly used on free range farms. Even eggs labeled as humane allow for debeaking. Naturally hens are not cannibals, but even free range farmers do not allow a natural life for their hens – far from it.

Forced Molting – Starving Hens

Another practice that is common for both battery and free range hens is that of Forced Molting. Naturally chickens would molt in the Autumn and during this time they would produce less eggs. The purpose of natural molting is so that the hens will have full, fresh feathers by winter. After her molt the hen’s reproductive system will have recovered somewhat and she will start laying eggs again, although usually 10-30% less than in their first year.

In factory farms and sometimes free range farms too, the hens are given artificial lighting, feed and a very unnatural environment. They also lay a large amount of eggs (due to

Hens being starved into forced molting

breeding, diet and lighting). This means that they will eventually produce less eggs. In this situation the birds are either sent to slaughter and a new flock brought in, or the company may use forced molting, so that after forced molting the birds will start to lay eggs again.

To induce molting a farmer has to subject the hens to stress. This can be done at any time of the year and as you can imagine is incredibly inhumane. The most common method of inducing molting is to starve the chickens. A farmer may withhold all food for a period of 2 weeks. Some farmers may also follow this with a short withdrawal from water as well. Can you imagine how awful this must be for the hens? Some hens will starve to death in this period. In fact starving hens in this way has been proved to be so cruel that it has been banned in the UK and EU. In those countries farmers can still induce molting by causing stress in other ways.

Cramped Conditions

Although free range hens are not kept in cages and there may be a few more humane farms out there that let them wander in fields, most commonly hens are still kept in cramped conditions. Thousands of hens are packed into sheds and although they must have access to the outdoors, there are no regulations on the size of the outdoor space. This means that thousands of hens could be sharing a tiny outdoor space, with the majority of them cramped indoors unable to express their natural behaviors.

A 'free range' farm

Just like battery farmers, free range farmers are in it for the money. This means that when chickens break bones or become ill they will more than likely be left to die. Veterinary treatment is far too expensive and the farmers have so many chickens it would be very hard to monitor the health of all of them.

I agree that free range eggs are a better choice than battery eggs, but the lives these chickens live is hardly natural or humane.

Slaughter

The day will come when the chickens get out of the farm. Sadly this day is when they are going to the slaughter house. All farms will slaughter the hens when they are between 1-2 years of age. These hens are known as ‘spent hens’. This is because their egg production will have slowed down significantly. After this new, young hens will come in to take their place. Naturally a hen could live to 9-11 years.

Slaughter for ex-layers is as disgusting and inhumane as the slaughter of broiler chickens. The animals are often not effectively stunned before killing and will die a painful death. Although their meat is not high quality they will enter the food chain as soup, pies, chicken stock or animal food.

Stressed chickens just before slaughter

In 2003 a public outcry brought attention to a California ranch that was reported to have discarded thousands of live hens using a wood chipper; no charges were brought because, as

it turned out, this is a common industry practice.

Hens are slaughtered at this age whether on battery farms or free range. Either way by buying eggs you are contributing to slaughter.

Go Vegan!

Cutting eggs out of your diet is surprisingly easy. These days there are excellent egg replacements you can use to bake cakes etc. If you are not much of a cook you can buy plenty of delicious vegan meals, cakes and other goodies ready made.

By going vegan you are helping to make a difference. Not only will you not be contributing to the cruelty, but your diet choices may help influence others and make people think about their food choices.

For a free vegan starter pack click here.

As part of our mission here at StartanAnimalSanctuary.com we want to inform the public on the truth about egg production. We also hope to rescue some ‘spent hens’ that would otherwise be headed to slaughter and show people that chickens are beautiful animals that deserve compassion and love.

Me, David and the rest of our local animal rights group (plus some doggy helpers) took part in the local RSPCA million paws walk. It was a great day with a huge turn out and there were a lot of beautiful dogs to pat.

We were there to raise awareness about puppy farms and to give out some leaflets about saying no to animals in pet shops and banning puppy farms. As you can see we all wore our ban puppy farms t shirts, which we made in one particularly fun meeting. Even Samson the dog had a ban puppy farms t shirt of his own.

The dog walkers were very receptive to the idea of banning animals in pet shops and many people took leaflets and said they would do more research later on and even join our group.

Of course the RSPCA raised a lot of money, but as usual there was some hypocrisy in their efforts as they were encouraging people to adopt rescued animals, yet they were sponsored by a local pet shop that sells animals to anyone who wants them. Many of these are impulse buys and the animals will end up at the RSPCA later on. It seemed like a strange decision to choose them as sponsors.

They also had a sausage sizzle, so whilst their motto is for all creatures great and small, it seems that does not extend to pigs and other farmed animals. Next year our group is hoping to run a vegan hot dog and burger stand at the million paws walk to give people a choice to be kind to animals.

Archer the cat after his life saving operation

A family pet narrowly escaped death after being shot with an air rifle in Melbourne’s south-east last night.

Senior Constable Mia Paterson said the 18-month-old Bengal cat, named Archer, was rushed to emergency surgery where a vet removed an air rifle pellet that had narrowly missed his spinal cord amd heart.

Archer is now recovering at his Malvern East home but remains in a serious condition.

The cat’s owner had spotted blood coming from a hole in its side at the Clarence Street residence about 7.30pm.

Archer had been outside the house for about two-and-a-half hours before he was seen bleeding.

Just yesterday I was talking to a lady in my local pet supplies shop who was telling me that some people around our area really hate cats and will purposefully try and hit them with their car if they see them. What is wrong with people? A few weeks ago I saw an RSPCA show where they tried to rescue a pelican that had been shot in the wing with an arrow. These people must be sick in the head.

Police are appealing for anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.