I recently viewed the PETA website and was appalled by the quality of treatment and living standards that these animals are faced with daily that people are oblivious to.Chickens are raised in ammonia-filled, windowless sheds filled with artificial lighting to manipulate the birds into eating as often as possible. Genetic selection and a steady dose of growth-promoting drugs are used to ensure large, fast-growing birds which damage the functions in their body. In some cases chickens can’t even stand because their legs can’t support their weight. Chicks take only six to seven weeks to reach “processing” weight in which they are then sent to the slaughter house. Over 360 million hens spend their lives in battery cages and over 100 million are killed in slaughter houses per/year. The wire mesh of the cages rubs off their feathers, chafes their skin, and causes their feet to become crippled. When the chickens have been caught violently and thrown into a crate, their brittle bones are easily broken. They are then transferred to the slaughter house where they are hung upside down with shackles on their legs (often breaking their legs). Their throats are then cut open and scalding, boiling water is sprayed on them to remove their feathers. Some chickens are still alive and conscious when this happens to them. The antibiotics that are injected into the hens can cause severe human illness because of the filthy and stressful conditions that the chickens thrive in. Residents there have been diagnosed with arsenic poisoning that has led to blood diseases and extremely rare types of cancer. Chickens in slaughter houses are enclosed in pitch black, refined spaces in which they spend their whole life in. Male chicks are instantly killed within the houses and once the chickens are ready for slaughter they are violently abused and suffer a painful death of electrocution. My goal is to prevent this. I personally have seen the abuse that caged chickens go through and how the environment that they are living in is so bad that it can result in them loosing their abilities to stand. I recently purchased some caged chickens who has spent their whole life in a small, consticted cage with 5 other chickens. I think we should make petitions, signs and share this cause on social media to raise awareness and hopefully slowly stop the abuse that these chickens face.
This petition is important because we need to raise awareness of the harsh, unlivable conditions that these chickens face on a day-to-day basis. If not stopped millions of chickens will be tortured, abused and slaughtered every day. Im not saying that we should stop killing chickens all together because they are a source of food, but that we develop our methods and give the chickens a good life before they are stocked onto our shelves.
