How do I rescue chickens from slaughterhouses and factories?

[MrFluffyandGirls]

Btw in England, Germany, Belgium and th Netherlands there are volunteer organisations that organise rescue operations,

They buy chickens at the end of their economic life and house them a few weeks until they look a bit better. Then sell them to people who like yo buy rescues,

A lot of these chickens still lay very wel. But they often get health problems, Especially with the laying system. Rescues/hybrids never live long like the older breeds.

Aren’t there organisations in the US too who do this kind of works ?

We don't need to rescue chickens that are going to die and go into production for other consumer products. The chickens were born and designed to provide the needs of human consumption so while small scale farmers are enjoying the care free country life with their livestock, people sitting in a high rise, beach house on the coast or even low income housing can still sit and have Thanksgiving turkey or chicken nuggets without invading the space of those of us who enjoy the simple rural life of low scale farming. Sorry you just can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

[Teneniel]

I would argue that the scale of factory farming today has allowed us to think we “need” way WAY more animal protein than we do. I enjoy meat quite a bit, but humans do not need it at every meal or even every day. Americans especially are conditioned to expect it. We don’t *need* to destroy wide swaths of rainforest just so we can grab a beef burger for $3 on the way to our next meeting. We’re just spoiled with the luxury of it.

Edited to add that lobbies from large dairy and meat farms have contributed to the subsidies that lower the consumer prices. It is possible to get quality calories into the hands of even the poor, but money at the top determines which foods win, unfortunately.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Personally I enjoy meat and am not going to give it up. Whether it's conditioning or not, I can't function without animal protein every day. I tried once and it was terrible for myself and everyone who had to deal with me. I aim to be proficient enough to not have to rely on stores for chicken. That's what I am able to do.

I'd love to be able to save a hen or two after they're spent since I don't eat eggs anyhow so it doesn't matter to me. Instead I am the person who buys straight run so those lucky males get a chance to live until i process or sell them

 

[cluckmecoop7]

I hate factory farms and have stoped supporting my local egg factory with thousands of chickens packed into a small, dusty and dirty, disgusting area. Terrible. Just terrible.

 

[Teneniel]

Personally I enjoy meat and am not going to give it up. Whether it's conditioning or not, I can't function without animal protein every day. I tried once and it was terrible for myself and everyone who had to deal with me. I aim to be proficient enough to not have to rely on stores for chicken. That's what I am able to do.

I'd love to be able to save a hen or two after they're spent since I don't eat eggs anyhow so it doesn't matter to me. Instead I am the person who buys straight run so those lucky males get a chance to live until i process or sell them

My husband is very much like this too! That's why we do chickens and meat rabbits. We're fortunate as well to be able to afford our other meats by buying shares from other homesteaders. It's definitely not the case for everyone though, which suuuuuucks.

 

[Folly's place]

Remember that almost everyone in the USA lives in cities, not in the country, and food comes in packages at the grocery, where price is everything. We have a generally well fed population, who can afford food, because of it's cost. Is it perfect, of course not, but consider somewhere like Somalia and be glad to be here!
Pushing for more humane treatment of any animals is very worthwhile, absolutely, but getting everyone back to a rural lifestyle is just not at all possible! And food produced on a small scale, animal or vegetable, is much more expensive than what's produced by those big 'factory farms'.
Also, there's environmental degredation, and animal deaths aplenty, involved in producing foods eaten by vegetarians and vegans. Monoculture produces the most product at the lowest cost, but still changes what 'Mother Nature' does, in a big way.
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

Back to the original question; it is possible to get 'spent hens' from commercial egg farms, and they are likely to be pretty rough looking at first, but may be basically disease free, and certainly may do well at home after they adjust to your place.
See what might be in your area, and if you can track any contacts.
Mary

 

[Molpet]

https://www.hobbyfarms.com/adopt-battery-rescue-hens/

 

[Fishychix]

In the Netherlands and other countries in Europe things are changing really fast now. Most people don't eat meat/fish every anymore. More and more people become vegetarian and vegan.

It’s easy to do because in the grocery stores you can choose from a lot of veggie alternatives for meat. Made with (not gmo) soy, grains, lupine, beans, chickpeas etc. Some are made to taste like chicken or bef hamburger. Other are based on arabic recipes like falafel.
And beside that, there are lots of cooking recipes.

Here and in Belgium we had people who worked in the factory farms and meat industrie that have posted films about the cruelty. Children who saw these films refused to eat meat any longer.

And more people are aware that the factory farmers destroy our environment by NOx pollution and that they are responsible for the fires in Brazil for GMO soy to feed the farm animals, Things have to change. Or our world is no good place to live in within one or two decades.
Our nature is suffering allready .

• ¾ of the insects have died
• Some type of birds get sick and die
• Some type trees /plants get dick and die
• There are outbreaks from certain insects because they have no natural enemy.
• Plants like wild blackberries flourish and other get extinct,
• People get sick of the poisons used (a proven connection between Parkinson's disease and poidon used in the flower and bulbs industry)

And one way of doing this is to take responsibility as a consumer and stop eating (much) factory farm meat/eggs. Stop buying flowers unless you know there are no residues of poisons/ no poisons are used.

We have a growing number of products that imitate meat. As a personal opinion only, blech. I love veggie patties, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not a fan of “fake meat”. I really don’t need meat that badly. Lol! Over here the culture is more ingrained with the good old days. I don’t disagree, but there’s no reason one can’t do things better instead of “that’s how my (gran)parents did it so that’s the way I’ll do it”. One should always try to improve oneself.

Indeed.

The miracle of modern agriculture has provided us in the western world with the safest, healthiest, most abundant food supply in the history of humankind -- a blessing increasingly available to more and more of the world's peoples.

People need to consider what they're asking for -- which is radically higher food prices and dramatically reduced food supplies.

Wweeelllllll, that’s not wrong, but not entirely correct either. Lot’s of other countries have managed to get better practices in place with little to no increase in cost. We need better distribution of our food in general. This pandemic has brought a lot of faults to light. City A has no fresh produce, City B has farms throwing out produce (or whatever) because there’s no way to get it where it needs to go. That can help stabilize prices.

We don't need to rescue chickens that are going to die and go into production for other consumer products. The chickens were born and designed to provide the needs of human consumption so while small scale farmers are enjoying the care free country life with their livestock, people sitting in a high rise, beach house on the coast or even low income housing can still sit and have Thanksgiving turkey or chicken nuggets without invading the space of those of us who enjoy the simple rural life of low scale farming. Sorry you just can't have your cake and eat it too.

Don’t you wish you could though?

I would argue that the scale of factory farming today has allowed us to think we “need” way WAY more animal protein than we do. I enjoy meat quite a bit, but humans do not need it at every meal or even every day. Americans especially are conditioned to expect it. We don’t *need* to destroy wide swaths of rainforest just so we can grab a beef burger for $3 on the way to our next meeting. We’re just spoiled with the luxury of it.

Edited to add that lobbies from large dairy and meat farms have contributed to the subsidies that lower the consumer prices. It is possible to get quality calories into the hands of even the poor, but money at the top determines which foods win, unfortunately.

It’s a tangled web of cash unfortunately
If only lobbyists had human and animals’ needs in mind instead of bank accounts. Think of what could be accomplished. Generally speaking, the average human diet calls for 50 grams of protein. Most people would be very surprised to learn how much they actually get. Lots of plants and even grains contain protein also.

 

[BDutch]

That may have some truth but you also have to take into effect the detrimental effect of farming produce for 7.8 billion people. Humans also need many essential micro- and macronutrients for good health that comes from animal protein. Studies show if Americans eliminated all animal protein from their diets, they would reduce US greenhouse gas emissions by only 2.6% . If you want to go down the environmental path there are other pollutants that far out weight animal consumption.(We could start with China and the toxic fumes they unapologetically release into the environment every second of the day) Everyone can do what ever they need to do to make themselves feel like they are making a change but the truth is, animal production is not the fix all and not going anywhere.

Most of the 7,8 billion people don't eat meat
daily. Many even not weekly. We don’t need meat , egg or diary products ro eat healthy . You only need supplemental vit. B12 if you eat 100% vegan.
Its unhealthy to eat much meat. Research on health issues claims that people who eat more then 70-80 grams meat a day eat too much meat in order to have a healthy diet. In general it’s better to eat lots of veggies and little animal products.

Don't blame other countries please before looking at you’re own ‘backyard’. China , India , Europe or Russia is not responsible for what is wrong in you’re own country.

Anyway in the Netherlands the majority of greenhouse gasses is from the industry. Factory farming however is good for 14%, and 41% of the NOx pollution.

From the official bureau of statistics translated with google:
( https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/dossier/do...een/welke-sectoren-stoten-broeikasgassen-uit-)
Which sectors emit greenhouse gases?
In 2019, 31 percent of the total amount of greenhouse gases was emitted by industry, 23 percent by the electricity sector, 19 percent by the mobility sector (domestic traffic and transport), 14 percent by agriculture and 13 percent by the built environment (due to the firing natural gas for space heating). These are the five sectors that are distinguished in the Climate Agreement presented on 28 June 2019.

this picture on NOx pollution is from another website (chamber of commerce) and it shows the majority of these gasses come from farming ( mainly factory farming)
https://www.kvk.nl/advies-en-inform...nemen/stikstofuitstoot-nederland-hoe-zit-het/