Haunted Visions
When Hell is full...the dead will walk the earth
“Chickens, pigs, and other animals--they are interesting individuals with personalities and intelligence. But if farmers did to dogs and cats what they do to animals they’re raising for food, they could be prosecuted for animal abuse and locked up. What people need to understand is that if they’re eating animals, they are promoting cruelty to animals.” -- Pamela Anderson
From shell to hell
The short, miserable lives of American chickens
Every year in the United States alone, more than 9 million chicken are slaughtered for food. Shy and sensitive animals, almost all of them spend their unnaturally short, miserable lives crammed together in windowless shed on factory farm, each one with less space than a standard sheet of paper.
Chickens are thought to be at least as intelligent as dogs or cats. When in natural surroundings, not on factory farms, they form friendships and social hierarchies, recognize one another, love their young, and enjoy a full like of dustbathing, making nests, roosting in trees, and more.
Chickens on factory farms do none of these things.
What’s a broiler chicken?
“Broiler” chickens are raised and killed for their flesh. They are bred to grow so large so fast that often their legs cannot withstand their weight. Tens of thousands of them are forced to live in a dark shed in their own excrement among corpses of other birds who died of heart attacks, suffocation, starvation, or stress. Their natural lifespan of 15 to 20 years is cut short when they’re throats are slit after six or seven weeks. Many broiler chickens spend much of their lives in so much pain that they are unable to move.
How does egg production work?
Only female chicks are useful to the egg industry, so males are tossed live into a grinding machine, killed with carbon monoxide, or thrown live into the trash to suffocate. Female chicks have their beaks seared off wit ha red-hot blade, then they’re shoved into a tiny cage with four to 10 others in windowless sheds filled with thousands of stacked cages. They have so little space that they cant even stretch out a wing. Eighteen months and about 400 eggs later, their battered flesh is made into dog food or is ground into feed for pigs, cattle, and other chickens.
Chicken is NOT a health food
Chicken contains as much artery-clogging cholesterol as beef (100 mg in just 4 ounces), and a single egg has twice as much cholesterol as a hamburger. The slaughter machine spatter bacteria-laden feces onto the carcasses so that up to 90 percents of all chicken flesh sold in the United States is swarming with salmonella, campylobacter, or other dangerous bacteria. As many as 4,000,000 Americans get sick from salmonella “flu” each year, and about 500 die. Chicken and eggs are a leading cause of foodborne illness.
What can you do?
For a free vegetarian starter kit, including delicious recipes, call 1-888-VEG-FOOD or visit GoVeg.com
What’s wrong with eating turkeys?
Ben Franklin called turkeys “true American originals.” He had a tremendous respect for their resourcefulness, curiosity, agility, and beauty. The hundreds of millions of turkeys destined to end up on American dinner plates every year are just as interesting, intelligent, and resourceful as their wild cousins. Turkeys have a range of personalities and individual tastes. Some are friendly, while others are shy or temperamental. Unfortunately, on factory farms, they are never allowed to do anything they enjoy, from the moment they’re born to the moment they’re killed.
Did you know?
Factory-farmed birds are fed antibiotics and have been purposely bred to gain an enormous amount of weight in a short period of time. This lead to painful, swollen joints, crippled feet, and heart attacks.
Turkeys slaughtered today live for months in sheds packed so tightly---usually 3 square feet per bird---that flapping a wing or stretching a leg is nearly impossibly. They stand mired in waste, the urine and ammonia fumes burning their eyes and lungs.
To keep the overcrowded birds from scratching and pecking each other to death, a portion of their upper beaks and toes are sliced off with a hot blade (without anesthetics).
Millions of turkeys don’t make it past the first week, sometimes drowning in water dishes or starving to death if eating with their mutilated beaks is too painful. Between 10 and 15 percent of turkeys die in the sheds from the horrible conditions.
At the slaughterhouse, turkeys are hung upside-down by their weak and crippled legs. Their heads are dragged through an electrified “stunning tank,” which often immobilizes them but does not render them unconscious. Many dodge the tank, meaning that they are fully conscious when their throats are slit.
If the knife, too, misses its mark, birds are boiled alive in the tank of scalding water used for feather removal.
Millions of people become sick and thousands die each year from eating contaminated flesh. Studies indicate that as many as 90 percent of supermarket birds are contaminated with salmonella, campylobacter, or other bacteria.
Turkey contains no fiber but has lots of fat and cholesterol. For example, a roasted turkey’s leg contains 72 milligrams of cholesterol and is 47 percent fat---more than many cuts of beef.
What can you do?
Give turkeys a reason to be thankful---go vegetarian.
For a free vegetarian starter kit, visit GoVeg.com or call 1-800-VEG-FOOD.
