An ill chick lies helpless on the factory shed floor

Further Parent Bird, Broiler Breeder Investigation and Rescue

Ok, I’m talking about parent birds and what you are seeing here in these rescue photos are chicks - so what’s up? These debeaked little babies are just beginning life, but there will be absolutely nothing for them to live for. Unlike their future offspring, who will live only a few weeks or months before they are eaten, these ‘parent birds’ will spend the next 18 months inside this shed. The conditions will deteriorate, their droppings will never be collected but allowed to pile up and up and will eventually resemble a hardened moonscape with crests and valleys of compacted pooh. The stench will be overwhelming, the air will be putrid, they will never ever feel sunshine or breathe fresh air. They will be crammed together and the hens will be repeatedly mated by the roosters until their backs are red, raw and very sore. They will only be fed every other day or their growth weight would prohibit successful mating and reproduction. They will always be hungry.

Once the chicks you see in these photos reach sexual maturity, at around 5 months of age, they will start to lay eggs. Their eggs will be collected everyday and put into commercial incubators for hatching. The brooding hens will never be allowed to sit on their eggs or nurse their young. Check out my earlier post: The Forgotten Victims to see what I’m talking about. When the ALV rescue team returned to this same shed on January 1 this year we found that all the ‘old’ birds in these photos (totally exhausted and depleted at only 18 months old, yet in the wild a hen can live to ten years) are now dead and used for fertilizer. In their place was the next ‘batch’ of victims.

We rescued 13 chicks on January 1 and three of these were euthanased by a vet, the others were rehabilitated and found good loving homes. The babies produced by those chicks we had to leave behind will soon fill the broiler chicken sheds like Parkhurst Farms (see my post: Time Bomb Ticking) and free range farms too! The suffering isn’t just in factory farming but in free-range farming too. Don’t be fooled to think that ‘free-range’ chicken is made without cruelty… the parents of free range birds suffer endlessly, and the same birds featured in these images also supply many free-range suppliers with chicks.

We will be going back again and again to rescue any sick and frail birds we find and to continue to document the pathetic and cruel life we force upon these intelligent birds. You can help by showing your family and friends where their food is coming from and together we can open the doors of animal farming. Thanks for your help and special thanks to every member of every rescue team worldwide!

Rescue Images: 1st January 2008