Vaine wrote:

>> and eggs are
>> produced from birds which suffer terribly.
>
> No, they are not. You've apparently been watching propaganda video taken
> of the

I, for one never watched a propaganda film about chickens and eggs.
However, I used to have a friend whose family owned a chicken farm where
the chickens were... well, I wouldn't want to be one of those birds, that
is for sure.

When they got past the chick stage, the farmer would do this nasty procedure
called debeaking where they would use a red hot blade to cut off the front
half on the bird's beak, then they would stick it in a cage of about 180
square inches along with another bird where it would spend the rest of its
life, at least until she would be shipped to the slaughterhouse. In that
close of confinement, the birds would get on each other's nerves and they
would often fight. That is why they debeaked them, so as to prevent them
from injuring each other, since the less aggressive bird had no place to
run. I saw those things with my own eyes. I even smelled the smell of the
smoke that came from the beak of the bird as it was removed with the red
hot blade. If that somebody's idea of being kind to animals, I pity him.
As far as I am concerned, that is animal cruelty. By the way, I am
definitely not a PITA type.

Some chicken farms actually let the bird's feet touch the ground. I
understand that is relatively common for some reason here in Washington
State, but it is not always the case, by any means, throughout the country,
as I witnessed in person at, admittedly, only one chicken farm. However, I
did read that this was sort of an industry standard, at least in Florida,
where I witnessed it.

While the birds may not suffer TERRIBLY, they don't lead any kind of real
life couped up in those tiny cages. However, I suppose that the word
"terribly" can be interpreted as meaning different things to different
people. We may have different opinions on this. We cannot ask the chicken
because all she will do will be to cluck in response. If she could answer,
then she would be the expert.

By the way, you also mentioned veal. Again, when I was in Florida I worked
for a couple years at a slaughterhouse where they only handled cattle.
Though some of the calves were up to a year old when slaughtered, many of
the calves slaughtered for veal were so young that, not only were they born
at the slaughterhouse, but when they died, their umbilicus was still
bleeding. After seeing as many calves as I did die that young, I lost all
taste for veal for just about the rest of my life.


--
Andy Rugg - The Cheerful Pickle
To email me, please remove "postheap" from my email address. Thanks.