Myth # 52 : " But eating eggs doesn ' t harm anybody ."
Myth # 52 : " But eating eggs doesn ' t harm anybody ."
I actually used to believe this myth as well , so I pass no judgment on those of you who still believe it . Unfortunately , this myth is based in a series of flagrant lies and insidious deceptions propagated by the egg industry ... Consider the following facts :
* Fact : Chickens are intelligent and caring and sympathetic . Each one of them has a distinct personality , each one of them is definitely aware of its own existence , and each & every one of them definitely wants to continue living ... Researchers have consistently supported these claims ; noting that mother hens display obvious signs of affection & empathy for their chicks , finding that chickens are able to remember and recognize over 100 different individual members of their flock , and even documenting that chickens have shown the ability to recognize and differentiate between individual humans as well ... Like other birds and mammals , chickens experience REM sleep ( directly associated with dreaming ), exhibit very sophisticated social behaviors , and share complex communications with one another ... Chickens , unlike human toddlers , are also able to comprehend that an object ( like an egg or a chick ) still exists even when it is taken away and hidden from them .
* Fact : The vast majority of laying hens ( even those on “ free range ” farms ) are constantly weary , emotionally abused , and physiologically exploited . Over 90 % of laying hens in the United States live the entirety of their lives in ridiculously tiny cages & over one third of all hens have at least one broken leg when they arrive for slaughter . They are also all enslaved in a cycle of forced reproduction , whereby they are manipulated to produce up to ten times the eggs that they normally would if left alone to procreate naturally
( laying roughly an egg a day for 10 months straight , instead of 3 seasonal layings of only 10-12 eggs each like they do naturally ).
* Fact : After 18 months to 2 years of hard labor ( literally ), all laying hens ( even those kept on “ organic ”, “ cruelty free ” &/ or “ backyard ” farms ) stop producing enough eggs to be profitable , and are therefore slaughtered – most often by being strung up by their feet and having their throats slashed while still conscious . In larger factories ( where the vast majority of chickens are slaughtered ) the machine doing the slashing regularly misses , whereupon those doubly unlucky hens are boiled alive in a scalding tank .
* Fact : For the vast majority of baby chicks that are born in the egg industry , the cruelty is even worse , with female chicks having the tips of their sensitive beaks burned off ( without anesthesia ), being fattened up and sent to egg-production cages as soon as possible , and then living out their short lives in despicably squalid & impossibly cramped conditions .
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