From: Carmen, Investigator <connect@mail.animalequality.org>
Date: Tue, Apr 19, 2022, 3:45 PM
Subject:
To:
| My name's Carmen, and I'm one of Animal Equality's investigators. I have a question for you... When you think of baby chicks, do you often imagine them in a nest? Well, chicks born on factory farms don't even know what a nest is. In fact, they'll never see a nest in their life. For their short lives, their 'home' will be an industrial shed. When you walk through the door of one of these farms, it's like landing on an alien planet. It's so artificial and so far from what society has taught us to expect from a farm. The acidic smell hits you like a slap in the face, and you find yourself immersed in the deafening sound of thousands and thousands of chickens. There are so many that it's hard to make out individuals. It's like a tide of white feathers. During investigations, I can get close to them. The little ones are curious. They instinctively look for maternal warmth, and they'll happily crouch in your hands. But when they're older (it would be wrong to call them 'adults' because they're only about a month old), they're frightened of me. And when I look at them more closely, I can tell there's something wrong. Their feet are deformed and bent unnaturally. They try to run away as best they can, but their skeleton is not developed enough to allow them to move easily. Their bones can't support all of the weight they've gained in such a short time. Technically they're still developing chicks, forced to bear the weight of an adult's body. It would be like a human baby reaching more than 600 pounds in two months to put this into perspective. But Liz, that's not even the worst of it. When I started doing this work, I wondered how these animals were fed. If you're picturing the classic farmer throwing feed to birds, then you're very mistaken. In these farms, the troughs and feeders are fully automated. They are continually raised and placed at a height that the smallest and weakest chickens can't reach. This means that those who don't grow fast enough are destined to die of hunger and thirst. And none of them receive veterinary care. For these farms, it's cheaper for the weak chicks to die on the farm than to keep feeding them when they won't grow big enough to sell for meat. The weakest animals are eliminated first by this cruel system. Just think: their lives are worth so little that their death is only seen as a cost savings for these companies. But that's not all. 'Emergency killing without veterinary supervision' is allowed on farms. This means that workers on farms are killing the weakest chickens unsupervised, which can lead to them killing the chicks in ways that cause immense pain. I've also seen them killed in full view of all the other chicks. Now do you understand why the chickens I tried to approach were so afraid of people? Liz, my memories of animals suffering and the constant fear in their eyes continually motivate me to live a plant-based lifestyle. Cutting out animal products from our diets is the most direct way we can help farmed animals. In addition to not personally supporting this cruel industry, together we can decrease demand for chicken meat and reduce the number of animals trapped in factory farms–and the industry's profits. I know you may be wondering what happens to the 'lucky' fast-growing chickens who manage to make it a few extra weeks until they're slaughtered. We did a test to find out. We compared the health of chickens living and dying on factory farms to three chickens bred in the same way who had the opportunity to live in a sanctuary, a natural environment with the best possible care. We'll be sharing the results in our next email. Until then, I can tell you what happens to the chicks from week four to week five of their short lives. DISCOVER: WEEKS 4-5 OF A CHICKEN'S LIFE Alice Trombetta, Executive Director of Animal Equality Italy, will email you again tomorrow with important news. Thank you,
P.S. Liz, today I'm sharing how the story of fast-growing chickens ends. Please look out for an email from Alice soon for an important announcement. P.P.S. Here is the information needed to send a donation to Animal Equality by wire transfer or check: Transfers can be sent to Animal Equality's account #667936236. The bank wire ABA is #322271627 and the address is 248 Hampshire Rd, Westlake Village, CA 91361. Checks can be mailed to Animal Equality at 8581 Santa Monica Blvd, Ste. 350, Los Angeles, CA 90069. You can also donate online via bank account, credit card, PayPal or cryptocurrency.
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