Michael Pollan described how laying hens are force molted -- deprived
of food and light and water in order to squeeze out some extra eggs
before they die. This practice reminds me of the mantra that
politicians spout: Everybody has to make sacrifices (except for the
rich and powerful who need more tax cuts and deregulation). Anyway,
capital can always find cheaper hens in the impoverished corners of
the world.
"… the American laying hen, who passes her brief span piled together
with a half-dozen other hens in a wire cage whose floor a single page
of this magazine could carpet. Every natural instinct of this animal
is thwarted, leading to a range of behavioral “vices” that can include
cannibalizing her cagemates and rubbing her body against the wire mesh
until it is featherless and bleeding. Pain? Suffering? Madness? The
operative suspension of disbelief depends on more neutral descriptors,
like “vices” and “stress.” Whatever you want to call what’s going on
in those cages, the 10 percent or so of hens that can’t bear it and
simply die is built into the cost of production. And when the output
of the others begins to ebb, the hens will be “force-molted” --
starved of food and water and light for several days in order to
stimulate a final bout of egg laying before their life’s work is
done."
Pollan, Michael. 2002. "An Animal’s Place." The New York Times
Magazine (10 November).
http://michaelpollan.com/tag/animal-welfare/
--
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA
95929
530 898 5321
fax 530 898 5901
http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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