TEN FUN FACTS ABOUT EGGS: 1. The domestic hen is a descendent of the Red Junglefowl, who only lays a few eggs/year. Domestic hens have been bred by us to lay close to 300 eggs/year! 2. A typical egg-laying hen spends her life in a cage the size of a notebook. 3. The extreme psychological stress from over-crowding often leads to pecking, fighting, and cannibalism. 4. Because male chickens can’t lay eggs, they are separated from the females after birth and ground up alive. 5. Or they are dumped – still alive and conscious – into giant trash cans, where they are left to starve and/or suffocate. 6. To avoid the hens from injuring each other, a part of their beaks are cut off. 7. When the cost of feeding them out-grows the benefit derived from their egg production, they are slaughtered. 8. 15% of the hatched chickens become meat. They are genetically selected to reach 6 times their natural weight in 1.5 months. They are still babies when we eat them, but they are so large for their soft bones that many cannot even stand on their legs, let alone walk. 9. Eggs are unhealthy to the point where it is illegal to market them as ‘healthy’, ‘nutritious’ or even ‘safe’. 10. In the end, they are hung upside down by their feet while fully conscious. First their heads will be dragged through a bath of electrically charged water, rendering most of them unconscious. They are then taken to an automatic neck cutter, where they are bled. After that they go to a scalding tank, which makes it easier to pluck them. Some chickens are still fully conscious after the electrical bath. Now you know.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 08:13:24 +0000