Sadistic chicken abuse

[Catherine]

Mercy For Animals sent an undercover worker into chicken farms in British Columbia, Canada. He was part of a team catching chickens for shipment to the slaughterhouse.  The video is shocking. The treatment of the chickens is a horrible example of animal abuse.
The company doing the catching is Elite Farm Services and the chickens are being slaughtered for Sofina Foods, who sells its chickens under the Lilydale brand to stores like Loblaws and Safeway.

There are a number of videos in the link. They are all worth watching.
http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...t=2&at=dt0

They have fired the workers involved, but really they are being fired for being caught on camera. The whole poultry industry is full of chicken abuse. All the other workers in the industry are still working and I doubt they are treating the chickens well.

The companies involved are now blaming and firing employees, but they are not really accepting responsibility. If they did know they are condoning the abuse. If they didn't know then they are negligent in their duty. They should know what their employees are doing.

There needs to be a lot more oversight in the poultry industry. Maybe we should stop calling it an industry. After all we are taking about living beings that are raised to be killed. The abuse seems to be inherent in the system. I don't know if it can be fixed.
I am waiting to hear how companies like Loblaws will respond.
If they don't respond then we should consider shopping elsewhere.

[LPC]

(06-15-2017, 03:34 PM)Catherine Wrote: They have fired the workers involved, but really they are being fired for being caught on camera. The whole poultry industry is full of chicken abuse. All the other workers in the industry are still working and I doubt they are treating the chickens well.

The companies involved are now blaming and firing employees, but they are not really accepting responsibility. If they did know they are condoning the abuse. If they didn't know then they are negligent in their duty. They should know what their employees are doing.

Exactly! The chickens are raised in the most appalling crowded conditions, with no natural light. Worse, they are slaughtered in the most awful conditions of cruelty. In the USA, there are no animal welfare laws to protect the slaughter of poultry, so it can be done with the animals fully conscious. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_wel...es#Federal
"Chickens, which account for over 95% of farm animals slaughtered in the U.S., are exempt from protection under the HMSA."

There is a very factual description of the whole process here:
http://freefromharm.org/farm-animal-welf...d-turkeys/

What is the position in Canada, Catherine?

So the issue of sacking a few cruel, sick employees involved with catching chickens will not make the bigger problem go away. As you have said, the whole system is broken.

[Tobi]

(06-15-2017, 05:33 PM)LPC Wrote: Exactly! The chickens are raised in the most appalling crowded conditions, with no natural light. Worse, they are slaughtered in the most awful conditions of cruelty. In the USA, there are no animal welfare laws to protect the slaughter of poultry, so it can be done with the animals fully conscious. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_wel...es#Federal
"Chickens, which account for over 95% of farm animals slaughtered in the U.S., are exempt from protection under the HMSA."

There is a very factual description of the whole process here:
http://freefromharm.org/farm-animal-welf...d-turkeys/

 the whole system is broken.

I read the articles. They are chilling.  The treatment of chickens and poultry generally is very cruel. And the fact that they are not even protected in any way as "livestock" is unbelievably amiss. (Why are they not Livestock??)

I also read a couple more articles; concerning the Organic poultry and egg industry. Even those who appeared to have exemplary standards in animal welfare when they first started -such as Black Eagle Ranch -went downhill badly, with standards failing and bad management of the birds -even starvation for days -occurring. Of course, the poor birds' fate was "depopulation",and we all know what that means....back to the horrendous slaughter methods.

That vegan fried egg on the page looked intriguing and very tempting! I will have to check that out.

I think all those who eat eggs, egg-containing products, poultry etc, ought to read those pages.
I had a bit of cake the other day, made with "Organic Free Range Eggs from a family-run farm, where the welfare of the hens is given priority". I thought that would be okay.....obviously not.

[Catherine]

There is some reaction to the video. The company is going to make employees wear body cameras.

http://news.google.ca/news/url?sr=1&ct2=...t=2&at=dt0

This should cut out the worst of the sadistic abuse. It doesn't improve the conditions the chickens normally endure.
I suspect the cameras are a response to public opinion. It could be the stores that buy the chicken that are putting pressure on Elite Farm services.

Animal welfare laws in Canada are very weak. It is shameful how weak our laws are.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&...rjuKwXYHJw



https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&...20OgC0PLqQ


For some reason chickens are generally overlooked and excluded from legal protections. Most animals are not treated humanely, but chickens seem to get the worst treatment. That is strange because they are the most fragile animal.

I read the article about slaughter methods.
We can't seem to find a fast, easy method of humane slaughter for chickens or any other animals. Maybe that should tell us something about our meat consumption. We can't eat meat and claim we care. I think there is a shift away from the heavy meat consumption of not to long ago. That is a positive step. However we eat so much meat that there are still a lot of chickens who will die this year.

There is no excuse for a civilized country like Canada  having such poor animal welfare laws. I hope Mercy For Animals keeps the pressure on. People need to be made to feel uncomfortable. If enough people react then we might see pressure placed on politicians to change the laws. This all takes time and for some animals time has already run out.

[Tobi]

Yes, what happens to Chickens generally is bad enough without workers being deliberately sadistic to them. That idea brings tears to my eyes. How can anyone feel that way?
I am glad the company has made the workers wear body cameras.

I am sure they are not all like that, but when it comes to 'cutting corners' very many busy people who have an eye on their living will do things which they may not have done normally. Put into the equation that panicked birds en-masse are extremely difficult to catch and restrain, and there seems to be a natural tendency towards some level of cruelty, even amongst those who wouldn't normally behave in a sadistic way.

As I must have said before, I live almost a quarter mile from a "barn egg" Chicken farm. To some extent I know what goes on there, even with people whom I quite like, and who are not cruel people. Contractors are brought in when the "sheds are cleared". I can only begin to imagine what goes on. And that is considered normal.

Poor chickens. They do get a terrible time on Earth.

[Catherine]

The body cameras are going to improve things and prevent some abuse.

However, the real problem is that our farming system is all wrong. Why are a team of workers going in during the night to catch chickens. No wonder the situation is messed up. The workers are having their normal cycles disrupted.

Why are so many of the chickens deformed and unsuitable for slaughter. We chose to mess with their genetics and we have created a mess.

The whole barn set up is not natural. Why wouldn't they give chickens natural light and more room to move.  I know it all comes down to profit and what earns the most. When money is your only motivator you get abuses.

I doubt your barn egg chicken farm is really any different that a regular farm. From the time chickens are hatched until they die a few months later they are subjected to a lot of terrible experiences.

Mercy For Animals has just shown us how it is for most chickens. They didn't find the one bad case in a good "industry". They just showed us how life is for a chicken. That is the real news story. That is what people should be reacting to.