Battery Hen Farm Tour
Last week, following a workshop about battery hens, nearly 20 people went to a South Auckland factory farm to see first hand how battery hens in Aotearoa are living. For many this was the first time they had been to a factory farm but it was something they needed to see, despite the risk.
Alana, who came on the tour, said ‘I wanted to go because I knew that seeing a battery hen farm myself, would enable me to explain better to others what they are like. I felt that people would believe me more if I had personally experienced being in one. I also felt like I was at the stage where I wanted to take a more hands on approach to helping animals, rather than just collecting money etc... so this was the first step for me towards that goal.'
What we saw was, unfortunately, typical of the Aotearoa battery hen farms; thousands of cages hens in a dark and poorly ventilated shed. There were between seven and ten hens in each cage within very little room to move. All of the hens were de-beaked; this where the top part of the beak is cut down using a cauterizing (hot) blade. This is carried out on the chicks before they are ten days old and is justified by the industry who says that it is necessary to avoid hens pecking at each other's feathers. Many of the hens had also lost alot of their feathers from rubbing against the cage wire and from feather peaking. Feather pecking results from the severe lack of space and barren living conditions which causes the hens to misdirect their natural instinct to peck and forage towards their fellow cages mates.
After the tour Alana said the following of her experience ‘I was surprised at how many chickens are kept in the sheds. I have seen photos and video images before, but nothing I saw really portrays what they are truly like. The smell, and the noises, and standing next to the cages looking up at them stacked on top of each other is something you cannot get from a photo. As well as seeing the state the chickens are in, you feel a personal connection when you look them in the eye.'
She went on to say ‘It is very shocking, and I am thinking I will go vegan in the new year. I did not realised that the 'free range hens ' start their lives the same as the battery hens, and that the male chicks are killed in such a horrible way either way. ( I don't know why I had never realised this, I guess I just hadn't thought about it really )'
We will be holding more of these tours in the new year and would love to take you along; so if you are interested please email us and keep an eye on www.animalliberationaotearoa.org.nz
Related
http://www.animalliberationaotearoa.org.nz/News/View-Article/Battery-Hen-Farm-Tour/
Comments
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
this is a very good thing you are doing ,this is something the likes of SAFE should be doing!
Re: Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
I'm not defending SAFE at all, but I should mention that as a registered non-profit they are bound to not break the law. It is the nature of such organisations. So to criticise SAFE in itself is sort of pointless as the whole lot of them (NGO's) won't be contributing to fundamental change
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
SAFE and their supporters are gutless wonders who need to realise grassroots is the way to go
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
thats bullshit chris. how do you explain greenpeacetaking illegal actions and not getting deregistered?
Re: Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
There is of course some wiggle room for NGO's, and Greenpeace is allowed their token actions even if they do break some laws.
The point is not to expect real change from groups like SAFE or Greenpeace, or to expect them to do things for you. If you want to see real change get involved in grassroots groups like in the article here and help them grow
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
PETA breaks the law and they are similar to SAFE aren't they?
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
SAFE are honest about what they are about at least.
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
if they grow, they will become like every other NGO. The reason NGOs are NGOs and activist groups are activist groups (I dont believe you can really call them 'grassroots') is because activist groups are cliques of nutjobs who the rest of society profoundly disagrees with. If they had support they would end up like a bigger NGO.
Re: Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
Open your own free range chicken restaurant or open your own free range egg farm - just get on with it and stop wasting time. Make money from your beliefs, there are plenty of buyers.
If you want to risk jail there are other worthy causes.
Set up "Free Range Free" signs outside KFC - slowly and gently pressure that corporate giant to adopt a Free Range policy.
The "Great Chicken Rescue" has been going on for *&%(*^& decades, It was on before I was born! What in Christ's name are you doing? Just an excuse for a party is it? A few of the girls easily led and so very very grateful?
Where is the leadership of creative resistance back home in New Zealand, it seems that everyone has eachother's fingers in eachother's bums.
Do you have nothing better to do?
I do hope that you will take this constructive challenge in a positive way, and if not, I'll set a chicken on ya!
Re: Re: Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
what is this, the NZ Herald comment board?
You think a few signs is going to change Pepsi co (owner of KFC) mind-slowly and gently eh? To you that is constructive engagement?
Its pretty pathetic if our level of resistance to various forms of cruelty and capitalism revolve around commerce (see free range and fair trade)
and just because a specific struggle has carried on for a long time doesn't delegitimize it. Thats why its called a struggle.
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
First they came for the chickens, and I did not speak out - because I was not a chicken;
Then they came for the cows, and I did not speak out - because I was not a cow;
Then they came for the sheep, and I did not speak out - because I was not a sheep;
Then they came for the alpacas, and I did not speak out - because I was not an alpaca;
Then they came for the deer, and I did not speak out - because I was not a deer;
Then they came for the snail, and I did not speak out - because I was not a snail;
Then they came for the panda, and I did not speak out - because I was not a panda;
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
be careful saying you came for the snails.....
they might just call you a jihadist
oh no animal rights was covered in that too.
\
everyone who eats eggs should have to see this shit! no amount of signs will encourage anyone who profits to stop so keep it up!!!
Kia Kaha
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
Good work guys - the more people that see inside these houses of horror the better.
One day we will look back in disbelief that factory farms such as this existed at all.
This is one of many valuable forms of activism that when used in unison will create the change that we all want to see for animals.
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
And yet no one talks about the cannibalism that happens on free-range Egg farms. But it's okay if chickens eat each other, because that's natural. Right?
To raise another point: Not all Battery farms are like this in New Zealand. In fact, in the last six months or so I believe we've had a few laws pass requiring chickens to not be kept in places like this.
Re: Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
Yes cannibalism does happen on commercial free range farms. Free range is not iedal, which is why many of us concerned with the plight of hens will not eat eggs at all. For myself I will only eat eggs if I can be personally introduced to the hen, and know she is being cared for.
But if you take time to read the scientific literature on battery cages and free range (my own peer reviewed studies provide a useful starting place), then you will realise that cannibalism can be reduced in free range conditions by such methods as increasing space, providing environmental enrichment,feeding with mash and not pellets, including roosters (they keep stroppy hens in line) and siting nest boxes for greater privacy. Less aggressive hen strains are also being bred.
A systematic review actually found that there was no difference in cannibalism between barn and battery production, when like was properly compared with like.
So in other words, welfare issues in free range systems are problems of management. In contrast welfare problems of frustration, boredom, and cage layer osteoporosis are inherent in the system and cannot be mitigated by management practices.
Michael Morris
Re: Re: Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
The other point is that not all battery farms are like this. Well this was contradicted by a MAF inspector speaking off the record to a Broadcasting Standards Authority hearing who stated that conditions described above are pretty much par for the course. As these are totally legal, the inspector could not do anything.
And the law change is a joke. Previously battery hens were allowed 450 square cm per bird. they are now allowed 550 square cm. An A4 sheet of paper is 690 square cm. the cross section area of a hen is about the same. So in other words hens still cannot even sit down.
MM
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
^^^what laws??? THE LAW is allowing this
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
well chris, the NGO in question, SAFE has this year alone put out an educational resource going to every school in the country complete with numerous photos of inside factory farms, as well as video footage. Plus they have had the first ever television advert showing inside factory farm conditions to air on New Zealand, amongst many other things. Just these two things though have reached thousands of people with animal rights information, people who arent just teenage punks for whom activism is a cool lifestyle choice.
Re: Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
Yes this is all fine. Again I'm not being particularly critical. SAFE does what it does and gets info out to a wider range of people.
I was just trying to point out that people shouldn't complain and expect SAFE to do everything. The point is to get off your butt and get involved and when you realize how disempowering SAFE is you can move on to anticapitalist perspectives.
as for your last comment, quit being cheeky, we're having a rational discussion.
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
i learnt to not wait around for others or groups to do something so i do it myself ,take some initiative and organise something yourself ,anything you feel comfortable doing ..just do it!
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
First they came for the palestinians, and I did not speak out - because I was not a palestinian;
Then they came for the Greeks, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Greek;
Then they came for the Lizards, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Lizard;
Then they came for the alpacas, and I did not speak out - because I was not an alpaca;
Then they came for the beer, and I did not speak out - because I was not a beer;
Then they came for the Borsht, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Borsht;
Then they came for the panda, and I did not speak out - because I was not a panda;
Then they came for the gypsies, and I did not speak out - because I was not a gypsy;
Im still waiting for them to come for me but no one knows I exist
SAFE is middle ranged!
I agree that SAFE should be doing this but it’s not surprising that it doesn’t since it’s run by middle aged white people only worried about their middle income pay, so they can be jetsetters. They work by making middleclass people feel guilty and then feel good because they have supported it and then waste money on useless campaigns to justify its existence. It’s save the beagles campaign achieved nothing and its anti-rodeo was hopeless because it used an aeroplane to fly around burning up fossil fuels that is harmful to the animals that they are suppose to protect. If you really want to save the animals from exploitation direct action is the best way to go!
http://safe.org.nz/Street-Appeal/
It looks like the ALA will go the same way i.e. empire build since it has put out the nice story above with the fictional character Alana in it, so it’s a propaganda piece. This is what SAFE use to do a number of years ago.
Re: SAFE is middle ranged!
I lost faith in Safe when I found out that its director stole money from it to pay for personal power bills some time ago.
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
Safe is a joke. Its Brisbane branch is really pitiful as it has only one person in it.
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
All that SAFE is about is making money,so that the selected few can have a middleclass life. They make their money by making middleclass NZ guilty and then feel good if they give it cash.
http://safe.org.nz/Street-Appeal/
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
this is discusting.
the chickens are cute tho =]
(in a sick way)
save the chickens!!
Re: Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
i agree with you wooh
Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
thats really sad, im doing a school study on this and im not eating chickens ever again! its such a shoking thing to se e.
Re: Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
i agree
Re: Re: Battery Hen Farm Tour
yea i surpose you could completly stop eating chickens...but whats wrong with eating them?
instead you could just eat ge free, free range chickens knowing that they have lived a long happy life.