The Marvelous Chicken
Today, chickens born of pinpoint-focused genetics are raised by the millions in factory farms. The industrial frying chicken is physiologically adapted to gain weight so that it’s ready for the skillet in six weeks. Modern hybrid laying hens are so efficient that they don’t even think of sitting on eggs (Will).
To understand the importance of chickens, one must know their history, their many uses, and how one can raise them effectively. Chickens are complex creatures that have greatly impacted history. Leading animal behavior scientists say that chickens have advanced cognitive ability: in some circumstances they are more advanced than cats, dogs, and primates (“Hidden”). This paper, written in the format of the Modern Language Association (MLA), discusses the history of chickens, there numerous uses, and how one can successfully raise them.
Chickens have a diverse history full of unexpected facts. Chickens were first domesticated in Southeast Asia from wild birds, and “it is the belief of many archaeologists that chickens were first domesticated not for eating but for cockfighting” (Adler). However, today cockfighting is illegal in the United States because it is thought to be inhumane. Chickens are thought to the most numerous birds populating the earth. In the United States alone, there are 8.5 billion chickens are killed every year. That adds up to 272 chickens killed every second (Geer). Chickens are often thought of as mindless animals; however, that is not the case.
Chickens are actually highly intelligent animals with attributes similar to those of primates. “Even when an object is taken away from the chicken and hidden they are able to comprehend that is still exist. Not many animals have the abili...
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...ent has its advantages. The chickens’ management requires less time: growers need only to feed, water, and check chickens. This also requires less land because the chickens only need a shelter and not a place to roam: at their largest, chickens need only two to three feet of space (“How”).
Chickens are valuable animals: they can produce meat, eggs, and feathers. These intelligent birds have a long and prosperous history. To raise chickens successfully, one must have a detailed plan. They need to know what type of confinement is best for them, how many they want, and what type of feed to use. Clear knowledge and understanding of the types of chickens, their benefits, and the appropriate conditions for raising them effectively ensures that both chickens and the humans who raise and consume them will achieve humanely grown productive poultry to provide for human needs.
produced is by three or four chickens or hens in a small cage that do
...hen rules and the enforcement of them in the meatpacking industry and slaughterhouses. However, Schlosser disregards to provide a solution. He simply points the finger and leaves the reader depressed, without means or logic to correct the situation. After reading, we enthusiastically agreed with Schlosser when he pulled on our emotional series. His logic was also substantial in this chapter with his thorough research and extensive truthful support. However, because he does not offer any solution to the problem, it diminished significantly from his argument. Although Schlosser's argument cannot be labeled an attack, in our minds, it certainly became nothing short of an overly emotional, well-jointed rage. Schlosser uses these numbers to show the errors of certain meat packing companies and in turn, how this has caused massive illness and injury to the general public.
Chickens have to endure suffering that no living thing should have to go through. The egg laying chickens have to be forced into tiny cages without enough room to stretch their wings. Up to 8 hens are crammed in to a cage that is the size of a folded newspaper, about 11"-14". Stress from the confinement leads to severe feather loss so the chicken will be almost completely bald in the cold cages. When the chickens are of egg-laying age, there beaks are cut off without any pain killers to ease the pain, they do this so the chickens don’t break their own eggs and eat them because the chickens are hungry.
“A Chicken” is a short story written by Clarice Lispector that has an animal as its protagonist as opposed to a human being. The chicken is seen as nothing else but a meal for the family to consume. However, this changes once she unexpectedly becomes a mother. After being recaptured, the chicken lays an egg in the middle of the kitchen floor. It is at this moment that fate of the chicken, of becoming a meal, is changed.
“We take care of animals, and the animals take care of us.” (Rollin 212). The preceding phrase is a policy that American farmers in the old west lived their lives by. Modern farmers live do not live their lives anywhere near to this phrase because they own factory farms, and the whole reason for having a factory farm is to fit as many animals in a small space as possible in order to maximize profit. Factory Farms, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) first appeared in the 1920s, right after Vitamins A and D, because if animals are given these vitamins in their diets, exercise and sunlight are not necessities for the animals to grow anymore (In Defense of Animals 1). The growing number of factory farms is coupled with the decreasing population of rural areas, which means that many people are beginning to factory farm because it yields a higher profit (“Agricultural Sciences” 170). In the 1950s, the average number of chickens on a given egg farm in the United States was 100, but now the average number is a shocking 10,000 chickens (“Factory Farms” 4). The reason for the increase of chickens has to do with new and cheaper technology developed just after World War II. The new technology increased the number of chickens, while it had the opposite effect on dairy and meat cows, their numbers went in the other direction. The number of cows used for milk was cut by more than half between 1950 and 2000, because farmers discovered new and more efficient methods for milking cows (Weeks 4). Many activists for animals’ rights are concerned about the methods used by factory farmers because they confine their animals into tight spaces and since there are so many of them in a small ...
Friedrich, Bruce. "The Cruelest of All Factory Farm Products: Eggs From Caged Hens." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Jan. 2013. Web. 02 May 2014. .
Fried chicken, a meat product that uses parts of chickens that are “coated with batter and seasoned, flour, and fried” (The Free Dictionary). It is popular all over the world, but is especially popular in the Southern community. However, in the African-American community, this meat product has taken on a racial meaning in the United States. It has become stereotypical for African-Americans to love fried chicken, along with watermelons, cornbread, and collard greens. This new meaning to fried chicken has affected our social community as well. The reason why this stereotype exists in the first place is hidden in history, dating back to the years when slavery was common.
Pollan, Michael. "An Animal's Place." The Norton Mix: A Custom Publication: Food Writing: A Readymix. Ed. Jeffrey Andelora, Melissa Goldthwaite, Charles Hood, Katharine N. Ings, Angela L. Jones, and Christopher Keller. 13th ed. Vol. 13. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013. 361-77. Print.
Marzluff, J., Angell, T. & Elliot, B. (2013, May. - Jun.). Birds: Brains over brawn. Audubon, 115(3), 40-41.
Industrial farmers see chicken and other animals such as: cow, pigs, and goat as egg and dairy production and not as an intellectual individuals. From the birth of a baby chick to their death on the production line, chicken endure pain and suffer through out their entire short lives. Baby chicks are de-beak then they are move to battery cages that are wired up high in warehouses that are filled with artificial lighten. The cages are so confined that the ...
Tom Regan, “The Case for Animal Rights,” in In Defense of Animals, ed. Peter Singer (Oxford: Blackwell, 1985), 21. U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistical Services, Livestock Slaughter. 2005 Summary, March 2006: USDA, NASS, Poultry Slaughter: 2005
Cockfighting is not cruel in any way. All male domestic fowl reach an age when they attain sexual maturity and the courage to fight. Gamecocks are not entered into cockfights until they are at least two years old. On the other hand, meat chickens have been genetically developed to grow quickly enough to be slaughtered at six weeks of age. If the gamecock was not bred in the first place, he would never have the opportunity to reach his courage day, which the meat chicken never lives to.
Perches are preferred as birds like to sleep above the floor. Roosting on perches reduces boredom, minimises the contact between the birds and their droppings, and therefore help to prevent diseases. The perches can be made from rounded stick or straight tree branches matching the size of birds’ feet. Each adult chicken requires about 20 cm of perch space and if more than one perch is needed, they should be about 50 cm apart and at the same level to prevent birds from fighting to reach the highest perch when they come in to roost in the evening. Several housing structures including the dome-shaped stick/wire baskets, stick-built and standard poultry houses are ideal for poultry housing. Cleaning the chicken house helps to prevent and control diseases, especially external parasites such as fleas and
Morally, one may feel obligated to exercise Vegetarianism due to the inhumane treatment of animals throughout the farming process. The issue is that roughly ten billion animals are raised for United States food consumption alone. Animals such as cows, fish, chickens, pigs, and turkeys are subjected to entrapment and confinement, less than sanitary living conditions and mutilation for the purposes of efficiency. Cows and pigs, from birth, are placed in narrow stalls where there is no room to turn around or even lay down. These animals’ daily lives consist eating and overeating until it is time to be slaughtered. Thousands and thousands of egg-laying hens are packed in cages, chicken crates, and coops. These animals are so densely packed that it is hard to distinguish between those that are living and dead. This often times leads to the spread of diseases among these animals and is one of the more prominent factors that contribute to unsanitary living conditions. The discomfort experienced by these animals leads to them being mutilated. The chickens that try to peck have their beaks cut; the chickens that try to fly have their wings clipped; the livestock that lose mobility, as a result of limb atrophy due to the stationary lifestyle experienced in stall confinement, are beaten. Animal mutilation, ...
The vision of Kenny Rogers Roasters is “to be the preferred choice for delicious and healthy chicken meals” (Kenny roger’s roasters international, 2011).