* Fact : Male chicks , useless to the egg farmer , experience their own special nightmare – being gassed to death , suffocated in garbage bags , or ground up alive ( by horrible machines called “ macerators ”) within hours after their birth ( with 200 million of them destroyed using the brutal macerator-method in the U . S . alone each year ).
* Fact : Even the most " humanely " treated " free range " hens are raised in disgusting , overcrowded hen houses and are cruelly slaughtered in " kill cones " – again , also while fully conscious .
In conclusion , no matter what beliefs you hold about the relative intelligence level of chickens , there is no excuse for treating any sentient being the way chickens are treated ... none whatsoever ! Indeed , the year is now 2015 , and it is high-time for us to stop treating chickens cruelly – which means that it is high-time for us to completely stop supporting the industry that still does so .
Current status of this Myth : Crushed Justification it provides for eating animals : NONE
" It doesn ' t take special insight or expertise to see that a hen confined in a tiny cage or living in an overcrowded coop is suffering , and it doesn ' t take a large measure of intelligence to imagine what her feelings must be when her eggs are taken from her or when she is immobilized upside down before having her throat slit . As humans , we arrogantly believe that we are capable of knowing just about anything that we want to know — except , ironically , what it feels like to be one of our own victims . We are told we are being ‘ overly emotional ’ if we care about a chicken or grieve a chicken ’ s plight . However , it is not our emotion that is under attack here , but rather the very qualities that make us human – namely , our ability to empathize , our ability to show compassion , and our ability to feel indignity on behalf of a fellow sentient being who is in pain and calling for help ."
~ inspired by Karen Davis
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