Y'all need to show these people some information on battery chickens....how they are stuffed in a cage, beaks mutilated so they won't peck each other to death due to the stress of not being able to walk, nest, stretch their wings, snuggle, dustbath, etc. They live their lives without ever hearing a kind word or seeing the sun or a blade of grass. Buying and eating the eggs produced from such gross cruelty....in this "enlightened" world in 2008....almost '09....is a very sad, sad thing.
It exists because people don't know any better, so it is up to those who do to begin the education process. Begin.....Take it slow, or they might not be able to take it in...it is a betrayal, after all, and we resist the thought of betrayal of such magnitude. So be gentle in your efforts, a bit of information at a time works best.
I lived next door to an egg farm as a teen and every three months all the neighborhood kids would line up after school to help take the "old" hens out to a truck and take the younger ones into the building. I was paid a few cents more per hour because I could hold three chickens in each hand, upside down, by one leg each hen.
I became adept at imitating chicken sounds.
When I grew up and got my own chickens, I didn't expect to like having them. I got them as an educated means to healthier food, when I learned that the eggs from pastured chickens have a far superior nutrition profile to anything found in a grocery store, unless honestly labelled "pastured." I've never seen that, personally. So I was willing to put up with these smelly, noisy, unpleasant creatures.
I very quickly, and shame-faced-ly, learned that the chicken noise I had learned to mimic was one of stress and fear. I had never heard the chatty sounds of happy, contented chickens. I was conditioned, in an old farm community, not to think about such things. Even though throughout my life I rescued many, many animals. Mammals.
By the way, I am an omnivore. Finding cruelty-free sources of animal foods is very important to me. All my friends know this, and also know that I don't judge them....how can I, when my head was in the sand for so long, in spite of the evidence that I saw with my own eyes, something most people are completely unaware of?
I will never forget the first time Blue-blue hopped onto my shoulder and tickled my ear with her beak. My heart thrilled at this special moment. Most everyone here at BYC knows many of these moments, but the vast majority of people will not experience this.
So educate, but gently, and persistantly.
