Between August 2001 and November 2004, members of the non-profit Ohio animal advocacy organization Mercy For Animals have conducted four undercover investigations of Ohio's largest egg factory farms.
At every facility investigated, MFA found severe overcrowding and confinement, countless sick and injured hens, hens who had become trapped in the wire of their cages, and dead birds left to slowly rot and decompose next to birds still producing eggs for human consumption.
The cruel conditions illustrated on this article are not isolated incidents. Sadly, similar abuses run rampant on factory farms across the country. The abuses stem from a system in which living, feeling animals are regarded as mere property, commodities to be exploited for every last penny.
The most important thing you can do to stop the suffering of these animals is to stop eating eggs and other animal products.
Confinement
Hens confined to battery cages live day in and day out without ever seeing the sun. The ability to walk freely, fully stretch their wings, or dust bathe, become impossible tasks. The battery cage frustrates every natural instinct. These naturally clean animals are reduced to living in the excrement of their cage mates. Constant rubbing against the wire cages, and continuously being assaulted by the trampling of other hens, many hens become naked with feather loss. Each shed at Buckeye Egg Farm confines over 150,000 hens. Each cage is approximately 24 inches wide, 20 inches deep, and 16 inches tall. With an average of eight hens per cage, each bird is allowed less than half a square foot of space, about 3/4 the area of a standard 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper.
Similar conditions of confinement and crowding exist at Daylay egg farm in Raymond. The sheds investigated confined 140,000 to 250,000 birds. The cages measure 20 inches wide, 17 to 20 inches deep, and 17 inches tall.
After viewing the footage from Buckeye and Daylay, veterinarian Eric Dunayer, DVM stated:
"Each cage at the facility appears to contain at least eight hens. The hens are severely crowded--so crowded that wire floors of their cages are barely visible and the hens cannot move to another part of the cage without climbing over one another. The wire of the cage is caked with feces and feathers." "Probably due to abrasion against the wire of their cages, many of the hens have suffered severe feather damage including missing wing and tail feathers. Many have patches of bareskin with deep, bloody abrasions or small masses that might be abscesses."
Debeaking
At Buckeye Egg Farm, investigators found numerous birds that had been badly debeaked. Severe overcrowding reduces the hens to “cannibalistic” pecking. The egg industry combats this problem, not by giving the hens more space, but by taking a hot blade and cutting off part of the chicken’s beak. As the Farm Animal Welfare Council in Britain noted in one of its reports, debeaking "should not be necessary in a well-managed system where the hens' requirements are fully met."
Debeaking is an extremely painful process that is done without any pain killers. According to the Brambell Committee, a group of veterinarians and other experts appointed by the British Parliament:
“Between the horn and bone is a thin layer of highly sensitive soft tissue, resembling the quick of the human nail. The hot knife used in debeaking cuts through this complex of horn, bone and sensitive tissue causing severe pain.”
Likewise, poultry researcher, Dr. Ian Duncan notes, “there is now good morphological, neurophysiological, and behavioral evidence that beak trimming leads to both acute and chronic pain.”
Trapped Hens
At Buckeye Egg Farm and Daylay, numerous hens were discovered trapped and immobilized when their bodies become lodged underneath the feeding trays or caught in the wire of the cages. Once trapped, it is nearly impossible for the hens to free themselves. With no access to food or water, trapped hens are at great risk of dying slowly from starvation or dehydration.
This dying hen was trapped under the feeding tray.
This hen has her right wing stuck in the wires of the cage.
This hen has her body stuck underneath the feeding tray.
This hen's wing is caught it in the bars of the wire cages.
This hen died with her head lodged between two cages.
This hen has her wing trapped in the hooks on the cage.
Sick and Injured Hens
Sickness and disease are inherent problems in factory farms where birds are forced to live in filth and extreme confinement. In an attempt to minimize costs, and maximize profit, even the sickest of hens are denied veterinary care. Hens are left to die a slow, and often agonizingly painful, death from sickness and injury.
Forcing a naturally physical bird to spend her life in a cramped and stationary position causes numerous health problems such as: muscle degeneration, poor blood circulation, osteoprosis, and foot and leg deformities.
Numerous other health problems plague hens on factory farms. At Buckeye and Daylay, investigators found birds suffering from raging eye and sinus infections, mechanical feather damage, pasturela, paralysis, vitamin deficiency, enlarged vents, wing hemetones, and blindness.
After reviewing footage from the investigation, Elliot M. Katz, DVM stated:
"It is outrageous that the operators neglect hens who are suffering so horribly from acute and chronic eye infections and injuries to the eyes -- one of the most painful of all areas of the body when afflicted. With eye injuries such as these, the failure to provide appropriate treatment and veterinary care is the height of irresponsibility."
The Manure Pits
Below the cages, mounds of feces stretch as far as the eye can see. At both Buckeye and Daylay, massive cobwebs engulf the walls and ceilings, the manure crawls with maggots, beetles, and other insects. Flies swarm everywhere.
The high emission of ammonia created contributes to the spread of disease and infection for the hens above. This toxic ammonia rises from the decomposing uric acid in the manure pits beneath the cages to produce a painful corneal ulcer condition in the chickens. This is known as "ammonia burn," a condition that often leads to blindness. It often facilitates chronic respiratory diseases such as infectious bronchitis, caused by airborne virus.
At Buckeye Egg Farm and Daylay egg farm, hens that had managed to escape their cages would often fall to the manure pits below, where they become trapped. At both farms, hens in the manure pits had no apparent source of drinking water. Many had insects crawling over their weakened bodies.
At Daylay, investigators found a hen trapped, with half her body buried in wet manure.
Investigators found many birds who had died here, in various forms of decomposition.
Death
Premature death is a common occurrence on factory farms. Many hens meet a cruel and prolonged death when their bodies become lodged underneath the feeding trays or trapped in the wire of the cages. With no escape, these hens must endure the constant physical assault of being trampled by the other hens. Other hens succumb to untreated sickness, disease, or injures.
Numerous dead birds are overlooked by management, who have neither the time nor inclination to remove the corpses. At both Buckeye Egg Farm and Daylay, severely decomposed hens were discovered in cages with live hens. The hens were left to slowly rot and decompose in their cages. Their cage mates are forced to live with the stench this creates.
Factory farms treat the hens’ lives as mere commodities, to be disposed of once they are no longer useful. At Daylay, a live hen was found in a dumpster filled with trash and hundreds of dead birds.
Once a hen’s egg production declines, they are sent to the slaughterhouse or disposed of by other means. Chickens are exempt from the Humane Slaughter Act and many hens have their necks cut while fully conscious. Some birds will enter the scalding tank alive. This is so common that the industry has a name for these birds—“redskins”.
Furthermore, for every egg laying hen confined in a battery cage, there is a male chick who was killed at the hatchery. Because egg laying breeds don't grow fast enough or large enough to be raised profitably for meat, the male chicks are of no economic value. They are disposed of at birth- usually by the least expensive and most convenient means available. They may be thrown into grinders, where they will be ground up alive, or discarded into trash cans.
One week after finding a live bird thrown in the dumpster, investigators went back to see if there were any more live birds left here. All they found were maggots and dead hens.
Rescued!
On September 8th and 9th, Mercy For Animals openly rescued a total of 34 sick and injured birds from Daylay in Raymond, Ohio and Buckeye Egg Farm in La Rue, Ohio. The rescued hens were immediately taken to an avian specialist to receive emergency veterinary care.
All 34 hens were diagnosed as carrying the disease pasturella and were treated for 10 days with penicillin. Eleven hens underwent sinus surgery. Two blind hens had to have their eyes drained. Two had acute vitamin deficiencies and received injections. One hen suffers from paralysis in her leg and will be paralyzed for life. Many hens were diagnosed with mechanical feather damage, wing hemetones, and severe feather loss, among other things. One hen was suffering from a hernia and another from a painful condition known as vent peritonitis.
Sadly, three of the hens had been so badly neglected by the egg farms that even after receiving veterinary care, they were unable to recover and died.
All of the surviving hens are now living at a farm sanctuary. They are recovering miraculously. Their scars are healing and their white feathers are returning. The girls will be able to live out the rest of their lives in a natural environment where they are able to walk around freely, dust bathe, perch, and socialize with their new friends. They are the few lucky ones, free of the torture and suffering of battery cages.
Open Rescues
Open Rescues are a new tactic being used in the United States by animal rights advocates. They have been used successfully in Australia for over 20 years and have only recently began in the U.S. by groups such as Compassion Over Killing, Compassionate Action for Animals, and now Mercy For Animals.
An “open rescue” is essentially the act of rescuing animals that are in dire need of veterinary care and taking full responsibility for those actions.
Because Mercy For Animals feels that what they are doing is the right thing to do, they choose not to wear masks to hide their identities. They are speaking out openly about the atrocities they found, and they are willing to accept the consequences of their actions. They conducted their investigation and rescue in a peaceful way and adhered to the principles of non-violence. Furthermore, they did not damage or destroy any property and only rescued hens in dire need of veterinary care.
They believe that by taking a non-violent and open approach, in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., we will be able to build a society based on love and compassion for all sentient beings.
One of the rescued hens
Annie
Investigators bathe a rescued hen.
Investigators rescue a hen.
Investigator Nathan Runkle comforts one of the rescued hens.
Investigators give a hen some water.
This rescued hen dries off after a warm bath.
Rescue Report for Cecilia, written by investigator Amie Hafner
When I first saw Cecilia, she was lying in the front of her cage as eight other cage mates, crammed into the same small cage, trampled her weak body. They spent their entire lives standing on that filthy wire floor and their long dirty nails were scraping into her bare featherless back. It had been happening for a long time. I could tell by the scars on her skin, the scabs, and the infected growths on her wings. She was sick and weak. Her body was unbelievably small, despite the fact that she was a full-grown hen.
I ever so carefully remove her from her cage. When I lifted her into my arms, she did not resist. She did not struggle or flap her wings or kick her legs. She looked as if she had given up. This was probably the first time in her life since she was debeaked and crammed into the cage as a chick, that she had been held by a human or had left her cage, but she didn’t seem to be afraid. Her legs were hanging limp. I tried to sit her on the floor to see if she could walk, but her legs simply collapsed beneath her small body.
She was unable to reach the water tube in the back of her cage from where she had been lying, and was probably severely dehydrated. We have her water and she seemed to perk up a little bit. She appeared to be getting back her will to live. She still couldn’t walk and was in obvious need of veterinary care.
We rescued her and took her to an avian specialist where she was later diagnosed as having paralysis of her left leg. She will never be able to use that leg again, but she was able to pull herself around on her other leg once she regained her strength. She was also diagnosed with severe wing hemetone from the sores, but that will heal. She tested positive for pasturella and received penicillin.
Cecilia is now recovering and is enjoying a happy and fulfilling life at the sanctuary.
Rescue Report for Lucy, written by investigator Amie Hafner
When I first entered one of the sheds at Buckeye Egg Farm and glanced down the first dark row of battery cages, I noticed something on the floor. When I pointed my light in that direction, I saw what appeared to be a dead hen lying in a pool of her own feces. She had escaped from the confines of her cage and was left without any access to water. Her body was small, featherless, and limp. Her comb was colorless. I bent down to pick up her lifeless body and realized that she was still warm and she began to move slightly when I touched her. I was horrified to discover that she was still alive. I immediately carried her to the end of the row, held her on my lap, and offered her water. She was to weak to lift her head up on her own, so I gently dribbled some water down her beak with a dropper. Her pale eyes slowly opened and she began to drink. She was severely dehydrated and had acute diarrhea. Seeing her accept the water gave me hope that she may make it out of this living hell alive. She was covered in her own wet feces and the smell of death clung to her body.
We carried her out of the shed and cared for her. The following morning, she died. We will miss Lucy. She’s just one of the countless victims of the egg industry. At least she received love and care as she spent her last hours wrapped in a warm blanket, breathing fresh air, instead of dying alone in her own excrement on the cold, hard, dirty floor of Buckeye Egg Farm.
Every day, thousands of hens are left to die from disease or sent to the slaughterhouse only to be killed and ground up for whatever meat is left on their poor sick bodies.
Rescue Report for Roxy, written by investigator Amie Hafner
When I first noticed Roxy, she was sticking her neck through the bars of her cage like all of the thousands of other hens. But something was different—I couldn’t see her eye. She had a large mass growing on her face. It was so large, in fact, that it had taken over the entire side of her face, including her eye. I slowly opened the door to the tiny cage. There were so many other hens living in the same cage as her and they were all trying to get out of the opened door. It was so hard to just take her out and close the door on all of the other suffering animals with their sad little eyes looking up at me. She cried out in fear, her voice muffled by all of the other sounds of fear in this hot, loud factory. She began to calm down as I caressed her. This was the first she had ever been treated with compassion by a human. I felt that she was beginning to trust me.
We rescued her that night and took her to a vet for treatment. The abscess on her face had started as a sinus infection, but had continued to grow and take over her face due to the filthy living conditions found in “modern” factory farms.
Her story is not an uncommon one. We encountered numerous hens with raging sinus infections, all of which will continue to get worse, the vet informed us, if left untreated. As the egg factories do not offer veterinary care to the hens confined there, we had no choice but to take her with us and get her help.
The following day, she was put under general anesthesia and the avian specialist performed surgery to remove the mass. She was put on antibiotics and brought home with me to heal.
Her recovery was amazing. When she was first placed in the soft straw she stretched her wings and the sunlight coming in from the window covered her featherless body. This was probably the first time that she had ever fully stretched her wings or had left the sun’s warmth. She was finally free. She began to eat well and especially enjoyed snacking on grapes. We gave her a nice warm bath to remove the dried manure and filth attached to her few remaining brittle feathers. Afterward, she began to preen herself.
Roxy is now living at a fabulous farm sanctuary where she will able to live out the rest of her life free and happy in the company of her fellow rescued friends.
Source: Mercy For Animals
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