27.
In Memoriam
A Tribute To Trillions of Chicken
Buried in The Graveyard of Human Stomach
Numberwise, chickens are probably the most eaten creatures in this world. They are also one of the most abused ones.
Billion of chickens are killed for their flesh and eggs each year. More chickens are raised and killed than all other land animals combined, yet not a single law exists in any country to protects them from abuse.
Chicken are conscious intelligent beings just like us. In the following paragraphs, this fact will be amply substantiated.
Billion of chickens are killed for their flesh and eggs each year. More chickens are raised and killed than all other land animals combined, yet not a single law exists in any country to protects them from abuse.
Chicken are conscious intelligent beings just like us. In the following paragraphs, this fact will be amply substantiated.
Individual Intelligence
Leading animal behavior scientists from across the globe now tell us that chickens are inquisitive and interesting animals whose cognitive abilities are more advanced than those of cats, dogs, and even some primates.(1)
Chickens understand sophisticated intellectual concepts, learn from watching each other, demonstrate self-control, worry about the future, and even have cultural knowledge that is passed from generation to generation.
Chickens comprehend cause-and-effect relationships [puts them above dogs in this respect] and understand that objects still exist even after they are hidden from view.(7) This puts the cognitive abilities of chickens above those of small human children. In one experiment that explored chickens’ understanding of causal relationships, researchers found that when injured chickens were offered the choice between regular food and food that contained a painkiller, the birds soon understood that the medicated food made them feel better, and they learned to seek it out it over the other choices. “The chickens will take the analgesic every time,” says Dr. Joy Mench, a professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of California at Davis. They understood cause and effect and learned how to make the best decision.(11)
Researchers also recently reported that chickens “can anticipate the future and demonstrate self-control, something previously attributed only to humans and other primates.”(12)
Scientists made this discovery after they observed that when given the option between pecking a button and receiving a small food reward instantly or holding out for 22 seconds in order to receive a larger food reward, chickens in the study demonstrated self-control by holding out for the larger reward over 90 percent of the time.(13)
Scientists are so impressed with what we now know about the intellect of chickens and other birds that a group of international experts recently called for a new naming system to reflect the complex, mammal-like structure of avian brains. (8) According to an article that appeared in The Washington Post, “The new system, which draws upon many of the words used to describe the human brain and has broad support among scientists, acknowledges the now overwhelming evidence that avian and mammalian brains are remarkably similar—a fact that explains why many kinds of bird are not just twitchily resourceful but able to design and manufacture tools, solve mathematical problems and, in many cases, use language in ways that even chimpanzees and other primates cannot.” (15) Christine Nicol, who studies chicken intelligence, reflected, “They may be ‘bird brains,’ but we need to redefine what we mean by ‘bird brains.’ Chickens have shown us they can do things people didn’t think they could do. There are hidden depths to chickens, definitely.”(9)
Dr. Chris Evans, administrator of the animal behavior lab at Australia’s Macquarie University, says, “As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list [chickens’] attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people think I’m
talking about monkeys.”(2)
The intelligence and adaptability of chickens actually make them particularly vulnerable to factory farming because, unlike most birds, baby chickens can survive without their mothers and without the comfort of a nest—they come out of the shell raring to explore and ready to experience life.
Chickens understand sophisticated intellectual concepts, learn from watching each other, demonstrate self-control, worry about the future, and even have cultural knowledge that is passed from generation to generation.
Chickens comprehend cause-and-effect relationships [puts them above dogs in this respect] and understand that objects still exist even after they are hidden from view.(7) This puts the cognitive abilities of chickens above those of small human children. In one experiment that explored chickens’ understanding of causal relationships, researchers found that when injured chickens were offered the choice between regular food and food that contained a painkiller, the birds soon understood that the medicated food made them feel better, and they learned to seek it out it over the other choices. “The chickens will take the analgesic every time,” says Dr. Joy Mench, a professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of California at Davis. They understood cause and effect and learned how to make the best decision.(11)
Researchers also recently reported that chickens “can anticipate the future and demonstrate self-control, something previously attributed only to humans and other primates.”(12)
Scientists made this discovery after they observed that when given the option between pecking a button and receiving a small food reward instantly or holding out for 22 seconds in order to receive a larger food reward, chickens in the study demonstrated self-control by holding out for the larger reward over 90 percent of the time.(13)
Scientists are so impressed with what we now know about the intellect of chickens and other birds that a group of international experts recently called for a new naming system to reflect the complex, mammal-like structure of avian brains. (8) According to an article that appeared in The Washington Post, “The new system, which draws upon many of the words used to describe the human brain and has broad support among scientists, acknowledges the now overwhelming evidence that avian and mammalian brains are remarkably similar—a fact that explains why many kinds of bird are not just twitchily resourceful but able to design and manufacture tools, solve mathematical problems and, in many cases, use language in ways that even chimpanzees and other primates cannot.” (15) Christine Nicol, who studies chicken intelligence, reflected, “They may be ‘bird brains,’ but we need to redefine what we mean by ‘bird brains.’ Chickens have shown us they can do things people didn’t think they could do. There are hidden depths to chickens, definitely.”(9)
Dr. Chris Evans, administrator of the animal behavior lab at Australia’s Macquarie University, says, “As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list [chickens’] attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people think I’m
talking about monkeys.”(2)
The intelligence and adaptability of chickens actually make them particularly vulnerable to factory farming because, unlike most birds, baby chickens can survive without their mothers and without the comfort of a nest—they come out of the shell raring to explore and ready to experience life.
Social Intelligence
When in their natural surroundings, not on factory farms, chickens form complex social hierarchies, also known as “pecking orders,” and every chicken knows his or her place on the social ladder and remembers the faces and ranks of more than 100 other birds.(10)
Chickens are social animals who form complex social hierarchies and interact in complex ways that are indicative of what anthropologists call “culture.” For example, researchers have shown that chickens learn from observing the success and failure of others in their community. One experiment that demonstrated this finding involved teaching one group of chickens to peck red and green buttons a certain number of times to obtain a food reward. Researchers were surprised to find that when a new group of chickens watched those who had learned how to push the buttons for food, the new chickens quickly caught on by watching the others.
Researchers have also found that chickens have a cultural knowledge that they pass down from generation to generation. John Webster, a professor at Bristol University in the U.K., set up a study in which he gave chickens a mixture of yellow and blue kernels of corn. The blue kernels were tainted with chemicals that made the birds feel sick, and they quickly learned to avoid the blue corn entirely (this is also another example of their understanding of cause and effect).
When the chickens in Webster’s study had their young, he spread yellow and blue corn around the farm, and even though he made it so that both types were harmless, the mother hens remembered that the blue corn had previously made them sick, and they steered their young away from it. In an article in the London Times, Webster explains, “What this tells us is that the mother hen has learnt what food is good and what is bad for her, that she cares so much for her chicks she will not let them eat the bad food, and she is passing on to her young what she has learnt. To me, that is pretty close to culture—and an advanced one at that. Chickens are sentient creatures and have feelings of their own.”(14)
Chickens are social animals who form complex social hierarchies and interact in complex ways that are indicative of what anthropologists call “culture.” For example, researchers have shown that chickens learn from observing the success and failure of others in their community. One experiment that demonstrated this finding involved teaching one group of chickens to peck red and green buttons a certain number of times to obtain a food reward. Researchers were surprised to find that when a new group of chickens watched those who had learned how to push the buttons for food, the new chickens quickly caught on by watching the others.
Researchers have also found that chickens have a cultural knowledge that they pass down from generation to generation. John Webster, a professor at Bristol University in the U.K., set up a study in which he gave chickens a mixture of yellow and blue kernels of corn. The blue kernels were tainted with chemicals that made the birds feel sick, and they quickly learned to avoid the blue corn entirely (this is also another example of their understanding of cause and effect).
When the chickens in Webster’s study had their young, he spread yellow and blue corn around the farm, and even though he made it so that both types were harmless, the mother hens remembered that the blue corn had previously made them sick, and they steered their young away from it. In an article in the London Times, Webster explains, “What this tells us is that the mother hen has learnt what food is good and what is bad for her, that she cares so much for her chicks she will not let them eat the bad food, and she is passing on to her young what she has learnt. To me, that is pretty close to culture—and an advanced one at that. Chickens are sentient creatures and have feelings of their own.”(14)
Personalities
People who have spent time with chickens know that each bird has a different personality that often relates to his or her place in the pecking order—some are gregarious and fearless, while others are more shy and watchful; some chickens enjoy human company, while others are standoffish, shy, or even a bit aggressive. Just like dogs, cats, and humans, each chicken is an individual with a distinct personality.
Colorado State University Distinguished Professor Dr. Bernard Rollins notes, “Contrary to what one may hear from the industry, chickens are … complex behaviorally, do quite well in learning, show a rich social organization, and have a diverse repertoire of calls. Anyone who has kept barnyard chickens recognizes their significant differences in personality.”(16)
Colorado State University Distinguished Professor Dr. Bernard Rollins notes, “Contrary to what one may hear from the industry, chickens are … complex behaviorally, do quite well in learning, show a rich social organization, and have a diverse repertoire of calls. Anyone who has kept barnyard chickens recognizes their significant differences in personality.”(16)
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Just like one has committed murder, so by law he must be hanged. By law. That is the general law everywhere, all over the world: life for life. So similarly, in the God’s law there is no such thing that if you kill a human being you’ll be killed, and if you kill an animal you won’t be killed. That is imperfect law, man-made law. Therefore Jesus Christ said, “Thou shall not kill.” No question of... They have modified, “This killing means murdering.” Christ does not say. What is your proof that if you committed mistake, a mistake, instead of writing “Thou shall not commit murder,” here is written, “Thou shall not kill,” general. Otherwise Christ has no intelligence. He cannot use the proper word. But you are misusing the order of Lord Christ. |
Communication
Chickens communicate with each other through their “clucks”—Mench explains, “They have more than thirty types of vocalizations.”(17) They have different calls to distinguish between threats that are approaching by land and those that are approaching over water.(18) A mother hen begins to teach these calls to her chicks before they even hatch—she clucks softly to them while sitting on the eggs, and they chirp back to her and to each other from inside their shells.(19)
Positive Emotions
They are very social and like to spend their days together, scratching for food, cleaning themselves in dust baths, roosting in trees, and lying in the sun.
[For Christians] Mother hens care deeply for their babies—Jesus even refers to the loving protectiveness of a hen toward her chicks in the Gospels, which were written almost 2,000 years ago.(20)
Kim Sturla, the manager of Animal Place, a sanctuary for farmed animals near Sacramento, recounts a touching story of two chickens. “We rescued an elderly hen, Mary, from a city dump and later an elderly rooster, Notorious Boy. They bonded, and they would roost on the picnic table. One stormy night with the rain really pelting down, I went to put them in the barn and I saw the rooster had his wing extended over the hen, protecting her.”(21)
[For Christians] Mother hens care deeply for their babies—Jesus even refers to the loving protectiveness of a hen toward her chicks in the Gospels, which were written almost 2,000 years ago.(20)
Kim Sturla, the manager of Animal Place, a sanctuary for farmed animals near Sacramento, recounts a touching story of two chickens. “We rescued an elderly hen, Mary, from a city dump and later an elderly rooster, Notorious Boy. They bonded, and they would roost on the picnic table. One stormy night with the rain really pelting down, I went to put them in the barn and I saw the rooster had his wing extended over the hen, protecting her.”(21)
Suffering
But the billions of chickens raised on factory farms each year never have the chance to do anything that is natural to them.(4)
Broiler Chickens
Chickens raised for their flesh, called “broilers” by the chicken industry, spend their entire lives in filthy sheds with tens of thousands of other birds, where intense crowding and confinement lead to outbreaks of disease.
They are bred and drugged to grow so large so quickly that their legs and organs can’t keep up, making heart attacks, organ failure, and crippling leg deformities common. Many become crippled under their own weight and eventually die because they can’t reach the water nozzles.
When they are only 6 or 7 weeks old, they are crammed into cages and trucked to slaughter.
Chickens are slammed into small crates and trucked to the slaughterhouse through all weather extremes. Hundreds of millions suffer from broken wings and legs from rough handling, and millions die from the stress of the journey.(6)
At the slaughterhouse, their legs are snapped into shackles, their throats are cut, and they are immersed in scalding hot water to remove their feathers. Because they have no federal legal protection (birds are exempt from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act), most are still conscious when their throats are cut open, and many are literally scalded to death in the feather-removal tanks after missing the throat cutter.
They are bred and drugged to grow so large so quickly that their legs and organs can’t keep up, making heart attacks, organ failure, and crippling leg deformities common. Many become crippled under their own weight and eventually die because they can’t reach the water nozzles.
When they are only 6 or 7 weeks old, they are crammed into cages and trucked to slaughter.
Chickens are slammed into small crates and trucked to the slaughterhouse through all weather extremes. Hundreds of millions suffer from broken wings and legs from rough handling, and millions die from the stress of the journey.(6)
At the slaughterhouse, their legs are snapped into shackles, their throats are cut, and they are immersed in scalding hot water to remove their feathers. Because they have no federal legal protection (birds are exempt from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act), most are still conscious when their throats are cut open, and many are literally scalded to death in the feather-removal tanks after missing the throat cutter.
So the hunters, some of the hunters, they also kill the animal half. So they take pleasure. I have seen in my own eyes in Calcutta. One hotel man was cutting the throat of a chicken and half-cut, and the half-dead chicken was jumping like this, and the man was laughing. His little son, he was crying. I have seen it. He was crying. Because he's innocent child, he could not tolerate. He was crying. And the father was saying, "Why you are crying? Why you are crying? It is very nice." Just see. So without being devotee a man will become cruel, cruel, cruel, cruel, cruel, in this way go to hell. And devotee cannot tolerate. And in Western countries I think students are sometimes taken to slaughterhouse to see. Is it a fact? Yes. You see. They take pleasure. Doing something sinful, they take pleasure.
We have studied in the life of Lord Jesus Christ. When he saw that in the Jewish synagogue the birds were being killed, he became shocked. He therefore left. He inaugurated the Christian religion. Perhaps you know. He was shocked by this animal-killing. And therefore his first commandment is "Thou shall not kill." But the followers, instead of following his instruction, they are opening daily slaughterhouse.
—Srila Prabhupada (Lecture, Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.9.52, Vrndavana, April 7, 1976)
Laying Hens
Birds exploited for their eggs, called “laying hens” by the industry, are crammed together in wire cages where they don’t even have enough room to spread a single wing. The cages are stacked on top of each other, and the excrement from chickens in the higher cages constantly falls on those below.
Their sensitive beaks are cut off so that they don’t peck each other out of the frustration created by the unnatural confinement, and farmers often deprive birds of food for as long as 14 days in order to shock their bodies into producing more eggs (the practice is called forced-molting).(5)
After their bodies are exhausted and their production drops, they are shipped to slaughter, generally to be turned into chicken soup or cat or dog food because their flesh is too bruised and battered to be used for much else.
Because the male chicks of egg-laying breeder hens are unable to lay eggs and are not bred to produce excessive flesh for the meat industry, they are killed. Every year, more than 100 million of these young birds are ground up alive or tossed into bags to suffocate.
Their sensitive beaks are cut off so that they don’t peck each other out of the frustration created by the unnatural confinement, and farmers often deprive birds of food for as long as 14 days in order to shock their bodies into producing more eggs (the practice is called forced-molting).(5)
After their bodies are exhausted and their production drops, they are shipped to slaughter, generally to be turned into chicken soup or cat or dog food because their flesh is too bruised and battered to be used for much else.
Because the male chicks of egg-laying breeder hens are unable to lay eggs and are not bred to produce excessive flesh for the meat industry, they are killed. Every year, more than 100 million of these young birds are ground up alive or tossed into bags to suffocate.
References:
- William Grimes, “If Chickens Are So Smart, Why Aren’t They Eating Us?” New York Times, 12 Jan. 2003.
- William Grimes, “If Chickens Are So Smart, Why Aren’t They Eating Us?” New York Times, 12 Jan. 2003.
- “Behavioral Research,” Chicken-Yard.Net, 30 Nov. 2001.
- Wayne Pacelle, “Mercy, Mercy: Chickens Deserve Same Humane End as Pigs and Cattle,” Humane Society of the United States, 2005.
- United Poultry Concerns, “Forced Molting,” United Poultry Concerns Online, 2005.
- T.G. Knowles and L.G. Wilkins, “The Problem of Broken Bones During Handling of Laying Hens: A Review,” Poultry Science, 1998.
- William Grimes, “If Chickens Are So Smart, Why Aren’t They Eating Us?” New York Times, 12 Jan. 2003.
- Rick Weiss, “Bird Brains Get Some New Names, and New Respect,” The Washington Post 1 Feb. 2005: A10.
- Ananova, “Chickens ‘Not Just ‘Bird Brains,’” 2005.
- Michael Specter, “The Extremist,” The New Yorker 14 Apr. 003.
- Specter.
- Jennifer Viegas, “Study: Chickens Think About Future,” Discovery News 14 Jul. 2005.
- Jennifer Viegas, “Study: Chickens Think About Future,” Discovery News 14 Jul. 2005.
- Valerie Elliott, “Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?” London Times Online 18 Mar. 2005.
- Weiss.
- Bernard Rollin, Farm Animal Welfare: Social, Bioethical, and Research Issues, Iowa State University Press: Ames, Iowa, 1995: 118.
- Specter.
- Grimes
- The Humane Society of the United States, “Chickens,” 2005.
- The Bible, Matthew 23:37-38 (New King James version), BibleGateway.com 2005.
- Alex Cukan, “Chickens More Than Just Dumb Clucks,” United Press International, 20 Sep. 2002.
