BS?? MaryAnn, I live in Northern California, close to some of the major national chicken processing plants in the US. I can assure you that de-beaking, - whether or not you in your small-time operation employed it - is a virtually universal practice in commercial fryer production. It is done to the baby chicks with a hot-knife or hot-wire. Obviously - at least to someone who is familiar with the process the whole beak is not removed, just the sharp forepart. And it does make for messy eaters, and contamination of the feed and the floor. The toes of the feet are seared so that the nails do not grow. Furthermore these hybrids, eg., the Hubbard Cornish Cross, "grow out" in about seven weeks, and during that pathetically short time they do virtually nothing beyond eat and poop. As a matter of well documented fact in the poultry industry business journals themselves, beyond about 8 weeks their strength to weight ratio is so poor they can't get the food into themselves quickly enough to make it profitable. The birds are virtually incapable of doing anything else anyway, and the feed and watering troughs must be placed low enough so they can get to them, resulting in quite a bit of the poop getting into the feed and water.
The stench inside the facilities is overwhelming since the feed is extremely "rich" in order to produce the rapid growth the birds have been "engineered" to achieve and which their systems therefor demand. The concentration of ammonia is so high that the workers who must enter the facilities must wear breathing apparatus. And for what it may be worth to your sensibilities, chickens are particularly sensitive and aversive to the smell of ammonia. In recent years it has become a matter of faith in the industry that it's necessary to immunize the chicks against Mareks disease which has become pandemic in the overcrowded conditions; it is a "contact virus" and a hot one, meaning it disables and kills quickly, and is dependent on the overcrowding and unsanitary conditions in the facilities for its spread. It also reduces the competence of the chickens' natural immune system, but the other diseases are slower acting and controlled by antibiotics and/or antiseptics for the seven weeks necessary for profitable feed conversion ratio: Yummy! Hence, as the lesser of evils, it is used in the interest of profit, not the animals, or our, welfare. The entire highly competitive industry is driven solely by financial profit. Transmission of human disease such as typhus e.coli and salmonella on chicken carcases is presently being addressed and litigated in California as the producers wish to irradiate the packaged carcases with radioactive cobalt to arrest spoilage of the meat. The description of the method of electrocuting the chickens is fairly accurate, except for the fact that the occasional chicken manages to pull it's head up out of the way and avoids death until the bleeding or scalding station. This is usually because the chicken's thigh rather than its leg was slammed into the clamps. In short, you may have run a relatively "clean" operation yourselves but it is you who are in error. And to state with such belligerent, contemptuous finality - on no more evidence than your own highly individual and MINISCULE experience - that someone else is therefor ignorant and full of BS because they know the general conditions in the poultry INDUSTRY, wherein hundreds of thousands of birds are processed in a facility each week - - that is indeed ignorant BS. On Sat, 2009-04-25 at 12:19 -0700, MaryAnn Helland wrote: > Indi -- that is total BS and proves your ignorance. It so happens > that my husband and I built two broiler houses and raised chickens > commercially for 13 years. Beaks and feet were never removed -- if > they were, then the birds would not be able to get to the feed and > water that they need to survive, much less grow to harvest size. > Neither were they confined to "very tight spaces" -- the barns were > large and airy. You may have some valid points regarding beef, but > not poultry. MA > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ > From: Indi <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Saturday, April 25, 2009 12:44:38 PM > Subject: Re: CS>the corpse thread...OT > > Yes, indeed. And with chickens they commonly remove the beaks and > feet, > so they don't peck and claw each other in a mad panic. This because > they > are confined in large numbers to very tight spaces. > The meat industry is hellishly cruel, and anyone who imagines > otherwise > hasn't seriously looked into it. And for those too hard-hearted to > mind the > cruelty, you might want to look into the health concerns surrounding > the > modern methods of "production"... > Rather than spoon feeding anyone a specific link which will likely be > disregarded as "biased", I recommend looking that up for yourselves > at > http://tinyurl.com/cmdatt . A sincere desire to know the truth will > always > yield the most powerful results. > > > > On Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 06:13:53PM +0100, Dee Fitzpatrick wrote: > > What, being wrenched upside down and hung on a conveyor belt, > then having > > their heads dipped into water and electrocuted - before having > them sliced > > off? I don't call that humane! Also before this they are kept > in their > > thousands, crammed together with no room to move in giant sheds. > Not > > humane at all. Dee > > > > -------Original Message------- > > > > From: [1]MaryAnn Helland > > Date: 25/04/2009 18:06:33 > > To: [2][email protected] > > Subject: Re: CS>the corpse thread...OT > > > > Dee -- turkeys are not cruelly abused. They are slaughtered in a > fairly > > humane manner, just like chickens. FWIW. MA > > > > > > References > > > > Visible links > > 1. mailto:[email protected] > > 2. mailto:[email protected] > > > > -- > indi > > > -- > The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. > > Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org > > To post, address your message to: [email protected] > > Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] > > The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... > > List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]> > > >
