awful video of what they do with roosters ****WARNING GRAPHIC****

[mandomama]

Sorry, wont watch it. I remember driving by a cattle yard in CA on a car trip one day and almost went vegitarian right then and there. We need to change our relationship with food in this country.

 

[Gindee77]

This is so sad. It's too bad they can't cull the eggs carrying male chicks somehow before they hatch them! Or before they ever incubate the eggs.

I'm going to save these videos to show my neighbor if she gives me problems about having a few hens! She feeds the squirrels and chipmunks, for pete's sake, she has to have a heart in there somewhere!

I can't wait until my girls are laying! Then I won't have to buy supermarket eggs anymore.

I knew I'd heard something about Jamie Oliver and chickens, but that was before I started getting my chicks. I'll have to look into this more. I knew I liked Jamie O. for some reason!!

Edit: P.S. I don't mean I like him because he killed baby roos. I meant because he seems to be a chicken rights activist. And BTW, I'm no animal activist, but I hate to see abuse.

I'd also like to add this to my edit. I have no problem eating meat, including chicken. And having watched my grandmother kill a chicken for Sunday dinner way back when I was a kid, I know what it's all about. I've even raised meat chickens myself (but I couldn't eat them) I think Jamie O. is just trying to get people closer to their food source. That's one big problem in the world...so many people have no idea where that Big Mac comes from or those Chicken McNuggets. They are just too far removed from the whole food production process.

 

[ticks]

it just came to me those people sexing (a.k.a. the audience) aren't 100% sure those were roosters or hens so a couple of hens could have been killed

 

[Jennym]

I wish that was never posted

 

[ticks]

Quote:
i'm sorry

i didn't want to hurt any one. I warned you though.

 

[CrowinKing]

You know its sad! but its a part of the poultry industry. I've seen places that sell the chicks as frozen food for reptiles, birds of prey etc. I'm sure most of them go for something else!!!

 

[cjeanean]

I guess I don't have as big of a heart as anyone else, because the way I see it the roos are gonna die anyway. Honestly, even if the commercial industry wanted to raise them for meat, I'd rather they died as chicks instead of having to live in a tiny cage until they reached slaughter weight. Chickens are beautiful creatures and produce healthy food for us, and of course there's always one or two that you just take a liking to (like my buff orp pullet or barred rock roo) but when it boils down to it they are food. Yes, they deserve to be respected as life, which is why I am glad they actually take the time to euthanize them in a minute or two instead of throwing them in a huge box to die of starvation. It is more humane the way they did it. Also, the chicks are put to use instead of just burned.

 

[MissPrissy]

Please keep this thread on topic.

 

[fourfeathers]

It is very disturbing and painful to watch. I could just feel my chest tighten as I watched it and had to turn off the sound at least. This manner of putting them in the gaseous box is more humane than the other methods of putting them alive into chipping machines or simply throwing them in trashcans, stepping on them to make room and later disposing of them after they are piled on top of eachother and suffocating in a drawn out way. Sadly, the statistics for the larger hatcheries are that they can churn out up to 80,000 chicks per week and 40,000 of those are discarded because of their sex, too early hatched or deformities that are noticed. In the meat industry, the broiler hens are sent to slaughter at 6-12 weeks after being overfed and genetically manipulated to gain weight at an unhealthy rate. They are hung by their feet, get their throats cut and sometimes are then thrown into the de-feather scalding pots while still alive. That is not humane slaughter in my book. Hens in the egg industry spend 1-2 years of their lives in battery cages, then are typically discarded such as the male chicks to be ground up as fertilizer and such. The farming poultry industry is a reality and will go one, but we can choose to try to get our own eggs from our chickens or those that we know are free-range (careful of that definition...sometimes farms advertise this when they range the hens 10-15 min a day only). I do think some of the transport methods for chickens and humane slaughtering need to be promoted. I guess the only way is choosing what we buy, from whom and contacting our legislatures.

 

[lemurchaser]

I'm just wondering what percent of US hatcheries use carbon dioxide? I thought a lot used the grinding method.

I'm a vet student and we had someone come lecture about poultry production and handling. He breezed over "... and the surplus male chicks are humanely dispatched..." innocent vet student in the back raises hand "How are they euthanized?" He responded "they are sucked up with a vacuum device, and sucked into a chick grinder....the vacuum kills most of them"....entire room of stunned silence.

One thing to note, Carbon dioxide that way is not a pleasant death. It activates your sympathetic response (fight or flight) and would make them feel anxious/panicked etc. A more humane way would be carbon monoxide.