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Avian intelligence has been systematically underrated until recently, as new studies indicate birds understand and remember far more than we've given them credit for. According to Lesley Rogers, professor of zoology at the University of New England, birds have cognitive capacities equivalent to those of mammals, even primates.
This cognitive capacity may be obvious to a casual observer of crows and parrots, but is also present in the chickens we raise in commercial farming operations.
Bernard Rollin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University, said "Chickens are not mindless, simple automata but are complex behaviorally, do quite well in learning, show a rich social organization and have a diverse repertoire of calls," according to Chickenindustry.com
Chris Evans, professor of psychology at Macquarie University, said chickens have the ability to understand that an object removed from their field of vision still exists, a capacity that even small children lack. Despite their intelligence, chickens are not protected by federal anti-cruelty laws.
Two common practices of the modern egg industry are an affront to human values, as they denigrate the value to life and cause extreme, yet unnecessary, suffering for the sake of an eggs Benedict. Not all egg-laying farms engage in forced molting, but almost all the hens purchased for these farms come from hatcheries that mercilessly kill thousands of newborn male chicks a day.
Hy-Line North America's hatchery for egg-laying hens in Spencer, Iowa, has come under fire recently for a video released by an undercover animal rights group, Mercy for Animals. The video shows thousands of peeping and wriggling male chicks, which are valueless to the industry because they can't lay eggs and don't provide ideal meat, being tossed into a meat grinder and churned into a bloody pulp. You can see the video at Mercyforanimals.org/hatchery.
The Iowa Hy-Line facility produces more than 33 million egg-laying hens a year, which means roughly 100,000 male chicks are mercilessly eviscerated every day at the Spencer facility alone - just one of hundreds in the U.S.
Mitch Head, spokesman for the United Egg Producers, said this is standard industry practice, according to a Sept. 1 article by the Associated Press.
Animal rights groups have documented other facilities killing male chicks by simply throwing them in trash bins where they struggle and writhe with their kin until painful suffocation ends their short lives.
There is something terribly wrong with an industry that brings millions of lives into the world only to kill them systematically.
The life of the average laying hen is extremely uncomfortable. Most hens are housed in such cramped conditions, with five to 11 hens per cage, that they're incapable of spreading their wings. Their feet are often deformed as a result of standing on wire for their entire lives. Hens naturally molt at an age of 18 to 22 months, but egg company researchers have determined production is more consistent with two periods of "controlled" molting, one at 14 months and another at 22.
The forced molt is achieved by removing all feed until a hen loses roughly 30 percent of her body weight. This means 12 days of expecting feed that never comes, according to Agribusinessweek.com. Many hens don't make it through the forced molt – starvation isn't usually good for quality of life.
Why are consumers complacent with such cruel practices committed against such intelligent animals? Because they demand the cheapest eggs. Farmers who shun practices like forced molting simply can't compete with other producers unless we pay them.
Remember every time you bite into that delicious Egg McMuffin that hundreds of male chicks are ground up alive every day, and millions of hens are subjected to short, painful lives all so you can get your breakfast sandwich.
-Beth Mendenhall is a senior in political science and philosophy. Please send comments to opinion@spub.ksu.edu.
I'm appalled the Collegian lets her articles run with a clear lack of research and knowledge of the subject on her part.
We can feed the world NOW, if only dictators and despots the world over would let us deliver the food!