A Look At The Faces Behind The Eggs

I wrote a blog not too long ago about dairy so this time I would like to tell you a little about chickens and eggs.

We all know life on a factory farm for chickens is not their ideal life. And it's not our ideal life for them either. Many of us have protested for their rights and many states have passed a law that will remove battery cages from factory farms. Yay! But that is just the tip of an iceberg in making the lives of chickens better. You hear of labels that say Free Range and Cage Free but in my opinion they are just covering the BO with more BO. The government and farmers are trying to make what is horrible seem better and make you the consumer feel better about buying the product. Here are what these labels really mean.

Free-Range: While the USDA has defined the meaning of "free-range" for some poultry products, there are no standards in "free-range" egg production. Typically, free-range hens are uncaged inside barns or warehouses and have some degree of outdoor access, but there are no requirements for the amount, duration or quality of outdoor access. Since they are not caged, they can engage in many natural behaviors such as nesting and foraging. There are no restrictions regarding what the birds can be fed. Beak cutting and forced molting through starvation are permitted. There is no third-party auditing.

Cage-Free: As the term implies, hens laying eggs labeled as "cage-free" are uncaged inside barns or warehouses, but they generally do not have access to the outdoors. They can engage in many of their natural behaviors such as walking, nesting and spreading their wings. Beak cutting is permitted. There is no third-party auditing.

For more labeling information see the Humane Society's website here.

A few facts about chickens on factory farms to think about:

• Every chicken is debeaked without anesthesia. Debeaking is a painful procedure that involves cutting through bone, cartilage, and soft tissue. They must be debeaked because being stuck in a cage or crammed in a barn causes the chickens to fight. They get bored, go stir crazy and get frustrated.
• Male chicks are useless for laying eggs so they get grounded up while still very conscious. Or they are placed in a plastic bag to suffocate and die. Or they are simply tossed in a dumpster.

• Broiler chickens have been genetically altered to grow twice as fast and twice as large as their ancestors. Pushed beyond their biological limits, hundreds of millions of chickens die every year before reaching slaughter weight at 6 weeks of age. Chickens grow so rapidly that the heart and lungs are not developed well enough to support the remainder of the body.

• There are no laws protecting chickens in respect to the way they are killed. (under the federal Humane Slaughter Act animals need to be unconscious when killed). Their throats are slit while they are still conscious. They are placed in an electrical bath that will immobilized them but chickens can still feel after this.

Here are some fun facts (yes after all this I said fun) about chickens that you may not of known:

• Chickens make memories before they are even hatched. As embryos, they hear their mothers' vocalizations and are then able to identify and understand them when they are born. Chicks are able to remember something even if they can't see it. Human babies can not do this until they are 5-8 month old.

• Chickens can tell people apart and remember their experiences with them.

• Chickens also have a sense of the future. Given a choice between receiving a small amount of food immediately or a larger amount in the future, they will choose the latter, demonstrating self-control and the capacity to delay gratification.

• Chickens are very social and form strong friendships. They prefer the company of familiar chickens and avoid chickens they don't know. Being in the company of their peers is more important to them than food.

• Chickens learn from watching not so much by instinct. If they see their sibling eating something bitter  and see their negative reaction, the chicken will not eat that food. The mother hen will show the chicks what is good to eat and lead them away from food that is bad.

• Chickens are very smart and are capable of complex thought. They can identify an object even when it is partially hidden. They can do this at 2-3 days old where as human babies start to do this at 4 months old.

• About 24 hours before a chick is ready to hatch, it begins to peep in its shell to notify its mother and siblings that it is ready to emerge. The mother responds to these sounds by covering her unborn chicks with her body or by making soothing sounds. Siblings communicate with each other while in the embryos as well. They can slow down or speed up each others development.

• Chicken know what is good for them. If the chicken is in pain for example, they will choose food that has pain killers crushed up in it as opposed to food that does not contain pain killers. When they feel better they will choose the food without the pain killers.

• Chickens are highly communicative. They have different calls for distress, nesting, mating, laying eggs, threats, all clear calls, contended calls, and contact calls. 

I think the most precious thing though is that chickens are highly protective of their young and mates. They form a strong bond to their family. Of course in factory farms all of this normal life is taken away from them and they are forced to live a life that is so not like them naturally.

So next time you are making cupcakes know that you don't need eggs to make them. All the vegan recipes out there will explain what you can use in place of eggs. Here are a few egg alternatives: mashed bananas, apple sauce, EngerG, tofu, pumpkin, & flax seeds. Just do a Google search and you can find out the measurements you will need.

And since I already posted about dairy, you know you can substitute dairy milk for rice, soy, almond or coconut milk.

Please consider a vegan diet for your health, the animals welfare and the environment!

References used are Peta.org, HumaneSociety.org and a wonderful book called The Inner World of Farm Animals by Amy Hatkoff