08-02-2017, 09:54 AM
Factory farms are factory farms. Do you actually know how organic, free range chickens live? They still have their beaks clipped. They still live in captivity. They still grind up every single male chick upon birth, alive (egg farms). For meat birds, they are slaughtered at 5 weeks, usually before they even have their adult feathers. They are babies who we have bred to grow into monsters as fast as possible. If we let them live much longer, they start to drop dead of heart attacks, because their heart can't support their gigantic body. Is that the type of life you would wish on anyone?
If you are talking about having your own birds, the wild animals that we domesticated chickens from lay about a dozen eggs a year (a clutch). Then when the clutch is finished, the hen broods the eggs, and has babies. We completely subvert the ability for this animal to naturally raise its young. Laying eggs completely destroys a chicken. It uses so many resources for every egg it lays. I just saw a picture of a rescued hen, who had almost no feathers. They gave her an implant so that she would stop laying eggs, and her body was able to recuperate and grow its feathers back.
Most farm sanctuaries break the eggs and feed them back to the chickens, so that they can recuperate all of the vitamins and minerals that it uses to lay the egg. This is currently the most humane solution.
All farmed chickens suffer a horrendous death. They are suspended by their ankles on a conveyor line, and they are pulled across a giant blade and they have their throats slit while they are conscious. Mammals, we make some attempt to render unconscious before we slit their throat. Chickens don't get this special treatment.
Current industry kill rates for chickens are at least 140 chickens per minute per machine. They are always, constantly, trying to find ways to increase this speed, with no concern for the state of the chickens.
What does "free range" mean? From Wikipedia...
"Organic" means it must be "free range", otherwise, it only denotes what food it eats and a lack of antibiotics, not how the animal is cared for.
"Free range" is a marketing myth, much like "humane" meat/slaughter, happy cows, etc. Almost every animal you buy to eat comes from a factory farm, period. And these places have absolutely no care for the animals' well beings - the main driver is profit, profit, profit.
I've learned all of this through my own googling, by the way. You can either buy the marketing propaganda from Big Ag, or you can choose to educate yourself about what it really takes to make the products you buy. If you want to support happy, well cared for animals, then you should support farm animals sanctuaries and not factory farms.
If you are talking about having your own birds, the wild animals that we domesticated chickens from lay about a dozen eggs a year (a clutch). Then when the clutch is finished, the hen broods the eggs, and has babies. We completely subvert the ability for this animal to naturally raise its young. Laying eggs completely destroys a chicken. It uses so many resources for every egg it lays. I just saw a picture of a rescued hen, who had almost no feathers. They gave her an implant so that she would stop laying eggs, and her body was able to recuperate and grow its feathers back.
Most farm sanctuaries break the eggs and feed them back to the chickens, so that they can recuperate all of the vitamins and minerals that it uses to lay the egg. This is currently the most humane solution.
All farmed chickens suffer a horrendous death. They are suspended by their ankles on a conveyor line, and they are pulled across a giant blade and they have their throats slit while they are conscious. Mammals, we make some attempt to render unconscious before we slit their throat. Chickens don't get this special treatment.
Current industry kill rates for chickens are at least 140 chickens per minute per machine. They are always, constantly, trying to find ways to increase this speed, with no concern for the state of the chickens.
What does "free range" mean? From Wikipedia...
Quote:In the United States, USDA free range regulations currently apply only to poultry and indicate that the animal has been allowed access to the outside.[3] The USDA regulations do not specify the quality or size of the outside range nor the duration of time an animal must have access to the outside.[4]
The term "free range" is mainly used as a marketing term rather than a husbandry term, meaning something on the order of, "low stocking density," "pasture-raised," "grass-fed," "old-fashioned," "humanely raised," etc.
There have been proposals to regulate the USDA the labeling of products as free range within the United States. As of 2017 what constitutes raising an animal "free range" is almost entirely decided by the producer of that product, and is frequently inconsistent with consumer ideas of what the term means.
"Organic" means it must be "free range", otherwise, it only denotes what food it eats and a lack of antibiotics, not how the animal is cared for.
"Free range" is a marketing myth, much like "humane" meat/slaughter, happy cows, etc. Almost every animal you buy to eat comes from a factory farm, period. And these places have absolutely no care for the animals' well beings - the main driver is profit, profit, profit.
I've learned all of this through my own googling, by the way. You can either buy the marketing propaganda from Big Ag, or you can choose to educate yourself about what it really takes to make the products you buy. If you want to support happy, well cared for animals, then you should support farm animals sanctuaries and not factory farms.