J u s t ice De n i e d
Could anyone with no financial interestEvery attempt to banish abusive battery
conceive of such a way to treat a sentientcages to history has been resisted until
creature? But they feel differently to us,demands for change became inevitable and
we’re told, just as slaves with no souls feltonly then did European governments act,
differently, presumably. opting for slightly bigger cages! Well,
chickens aren’t really
The only excuse
animals, are they?
for visiting suchThe only excuse for visiting
suffering on other
such suffering on other
creatures can be
creatures can be ignorance.
But that exit is closed
ignorance
because we all know the
truth. We might pretend we
don’t, we might say that to
Watch a chicken as she forages around a give up battery eggs is pointless as one
field. She struts and scratches and runs andperson’s abstinence makes little difference
bathes in dirt. Her feet thrust the earth toand we might even say what the battery
one side in search of bugs and beetles andfarmers say – that it’s of no consequence. But
seeds and other tasty things to eat. Herin our hearts we know it’s wrong and that
feathers shine and glimmer in the sunshine.knowledge makes us push the reality into the
darker reaches of our minds. If we don’t
What perverted intelligence could ever havethink about it, it doesn’t exist.
conceived of taking these restless creatures
and cramming them five to a cage littleSo where is the hope in our relationship with
bigger than a microwave oven? With beakanimals? Almost nowhere on the farms and
tips painfully amputated, feathers torn outin the animal factories that now provide the
by the inevitable aggression, the patheticbulk of animals for slaughter as food. Those
creatures are selectively bred to produce 10chickens grown for meat stand testimony to
times more eggs than they would naturallythe inhumanity of humankind.
lay. Their bones break at
little more than a touch,Battery hens – crammed five to a cage and selectively bred to
such are the demands onproduce 10 times more eggs than they would naturally
their bodies’ calcium stores.
Instead of bugs and
beetles, seeds and sedges
to eat, dry pellets of
indeterminate origin are all
that is on offer. My own ex
battery hens display utter
contempt for these
nutritional travesties,
preferring anything in their
place, with a distinct
preference for day-old,
take-away curry.
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