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Good news is a relative concept when you're a battery hen—suffice it to say it isn’t exactly plentiful. McDonald’s wouldn't seem the most likely place to find it, but earlier this month the fast-food conglomerate took a stand for factory-farmed fowl everywhere. Along with Target, McDonald’s stopped buying eggs from Sparboe Farms, one of the nation's largest egg suppliers, after the animal rights group Mercy for Animals released a video showing rampant animal abuse at five of Sparboe’s facilities in three states. (Warning: The video shows disturbing images.)
Sparboe produces 300 million eggs per year. According to the Associated Press, its Iowa facility was the only fresh egg supplier to every McDonald’s west of the Mississippi. The Mercy for Animals video shows (among other things) hens packed into cages and workers swinging chickens by their feet and cutting off the tips of their beaks. Although Sparboe’s president claimed she was “shocked” by the abuses, McDonald’s apparently wasn’t buying it. Adding insult to injury, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors reportedly found that several of the egg supplier’s facilities were “contaminated with filth” and conducive to salmonella.
It remains to be seen if the move by Target and McDonald’s will influence the way other companies do business. If other corporations are moved to consider the chicken, then perhaps the lives of battery birds everywhere won’t be quite so foul.
Image source: Flickr member JoeGray under Creative Commons
Chickens are surprisingly smart, with personalities and social structures. Of course they suffer.
Here they are, through no choice of their own, giving up their lives and producing eggs for us. The least we can do in return is give them a decent life that is not filled with horrible suffering.
And let's face it, Sparboe isn't special. ALL factory farming is cruel. Can I imagine being...+READ
Chickens are surprisingly smart, with personalities and social structures. Of course they suffer.
Here they are, through no choice of their own, giving up their lives and producing eggs for us. The least we can do in return is give them a decent life that is not filled with horrible suffering.
And let's face it, Sparboe isn't special. ALL factory farming is cruel. Can I imagine being trapped in a cage so small I could not turn around for more than an hour? How about my whole life? This is what they do to pigs, too, who are smarter than dogs. We would prosecute a dog owner who did this type of thing. Why are we so blind to the suffering of these animals we eat?
Every single one of us is responsible for this cruelty if we look the other way and still eat factory farmed meat.
And I am not saying we are not at the top of the food chain and shouldn't eat meat. I agree with the poster who pointed out that a quick death after a normal life is a very different thing to inflict upon a creature from a life of complete suffering.
Find a small local farmer to buy your meat from. Stock up a freezer and boycott these big companies.-COLLAPSE
Fair enough, many people seem to be in the "they're just there for us to eat! Who cares!" mindset. Well, let's look at it from another perspective then ...
... what kind of human has it in them to treat animals this way? I haven't seen the video, but breaking/cutting/burning off beaks takes quite a mental state to achieve. Isn't this a classic behaviour of mentally deranged individuals?!...+READ
Fair enough, many people seem to be in the "they're just there for us to eat! Who cares!" mindset. Well, let's look at it from another perspective then ...
... what kind of human has it in them to treat animals this way? I haven't seen the video, but breaking/cutting/burning off beaks takes quite a mental state to achieve. Isn't this a classic behaviour of mentally deranged individuals?! Shouldn't these "humans" be caged themselves?! Shouldn't they be charged? Shouldn't they at least be fired?
If I were running a paper business and some employee was creasing my paper supply, I'd fire him in a heart beat. It just doesn't make sense otherwise. This employee would be considered moronic to me.
How about a chicken/egg factory with employees mutilating the birds? Normal?
I'd charge them and get them mentally tested. I wouldn't be surprised if they beat their family as well. Clearly they display a lack of caring emotion. They have some form of superiority complex. Bully's. Picking on the TRULY helpless.
Just pathetic really.-COLLAPSE
I'd like to know where they are going to find a mass producer who does NOT treat the chickens this way. All business is about profit margin, and this method provides the best margin. This treatment of farm animals--ALL factory farmed animals--is why I raise as much of my own meat and eggs as I can.
pim69 - you are right, we are at the top of the food chain which means we should take some responsibility for that which is done on our behalf. Swinging a chicken (or any other creature) around by its feet, burning off beaks, leaving dead carcasses in cages, etc. is not necessary to sustain our food supply. I'm not a animal rights activist but cruelty for fun and/or profit is unacceptable.
God damn it, if we're going to put animals into slavery for our food, the least we can do is let them live in comfortable conditions.
To those who think it doesn't matter how an animal is treated because we will eat them in the end, it most certainly does. In fact, that is the only thing that does matter. Even if there is no inherent value to a chicken's life, that chicken can feel pain and suffer, just like any sentient animal. It is one thing to kill the animal in the quickest and most painless way possible after it led a...+READ
To those who think it doesn't matter how an animal is treated because we will eat them in the end, it most certainly does. In fact, that is the only thing that does matter. Even if there is no inherent value to a chicken's life, that chicken can feel pain and suffer, just like any sentient animal. It is one thing to kill the animal in the quickest and most painless way possible after it led a regular chicken life, it is a very different issue when the chicken is tortured and consequently suffers its entire life. Suffering is unnecessary and cruel, and companies like Sparboe should be shut down. Good for McDonalds and Target! If we can't use our rationality far enough to see that unnecessary cruelty shouldn't occur, then we certainly aren't any better than any other life-form on this planet.-COLLAPSE
The most likely long term effect is that Iowa will follow other states in passing a law banning the filming of animal cruelty or filthy conditions on private property.
Corporations are people, don't you know, so they should be protected from libel or slander. They are also super-people, so for their extra protection the defense of "truthfulness" won't apply. You embarass a food producer or...+READ
The most likely long term effect is that Iowa will follow other states in passing a law banning the filming of animal cruelty or filthy conditions on private property.
Corporations are people, don't you know, so they should be protected from libel or slander. They are also super-people, so for their extra protection the defense of "truthfulness" won't apply. You embarass a food producer or supermarket chain, you're liable!-COLLAPSE
i also agree with pim69.
Also, that is no different than any other farm/plant. It happens everywhere
I agree with PIM69 we are just animals..but we are also slightly evolved and we hopefully have some kind of sympathy and/or compassion showing our human side also.. I think it can be done to have the animals suffer less and inforce rules at the plant where actions like that will not be tolerated.
But the reality is.. were going to eat them in the end, so it does kind of seem like a joke.. But...+READ
I agree with PIM69 we are just animals..but we are also slightly evolved and we hopefully have some kind of sympathy and/or compassion showing our human side also.. I think it can be done to have the animals suffer less and inforce rules at the plant where actions like that will not be tolerated.
But the reality is.. were going to eat them in the end, so it does kind of seem like a joke.. But still, show some respect and compassion and try to make it a little easier on them..we could be on the other side.
Also.. I give those guys credit working at the produce plant.. there doing a dirty job that know one wants to do, I consume meat..Yet I would never kill an animal.-COLLAPSE
@pim69 Are you then suggesting that it doesn't matter how animals are treated just because we eat them? That's just ridiculous. Although I am no vegan or vegetarian, I FULLY support their decision in dropping Sparboe. This doesn't mean that they will move to a necessarily better, more humane, company. What it does mean is that in time, these other egg farms will have to re-evaluate and change...+READ
@pim69 Are you then suggesting that it doesn't matter how animals are treated just because we eat them? That's just ridiculous. Although I am no vegan or vegetarian, I FULLY support their decision in dropping Sparboe. This doesn't mean that they will move to a necessarily better, more humane, company. What it does mean is that in time, these other egg farms will have to re-evaluate and change their methods of raising their chickens unless they want to be the next one to be dropped from a giant like McDonalds.-COLLAPSE
I know I don't share the popular opinion seemingly, but let's face it they're just chickens, bred only in volume for our own consumption. They serve no other purpose. Don't fool yourselves because our society has separated most of us from the manual labor of food gathering, we are still just animals at the top of the food chain.
So McDs just moved on to someone else who probably does the same horrible things. That's the only way to supply so many at once. factory farms should be banned, period. McDs will find a way to support small local farms only if they are forced to.
Good move, but should not have taken so long. If McD's already recognized the problem and banned battery cages in the EU and California, why were they appropriate for the rest of US?