On my walk to the park with my dogs this morning, I was in a great mood. The sun was shining, the sky was crystal clear blue and the church bells were ringing. It was a picturesque early morning in Brooklyn. Then, out of nowhere, it came. A flatbed truck, open on the sides so you could see the dozens and dozens of crates stacked on top of each other. In each of these crates, 5 to 6 chickens were crammed in, completely unable to move. They were squawking, clearly terrified and obviously in pain. The stench was overwhelming. It was clear that they were urinating and defecating on top of each other as there was nowhere for them to move. Obviously I know that this happens, but it was totally out of context for me to see such an image in the middle of my residential urban neighborhood where, sadly, there are dozens of local “Backyard Slaughterhouses”.
Crossing paths with the thousands of chickens I saw this morning – who are but an infinitesimal fraction of the over 9 billion chickens who endure this same ghastly fate each year in the United States alone – was too much for me to bear. As they drove off and we continued on our walk into the park, I began to sob as I thought about where they and their sisters go when that truck ends it’s journey. Their brothers were likely killed when they were a few days old, as male chicks have little value in poultry and egg farming so they are usually tossed into bags and suffocated or thrown alive into huge grinders and shredded up alive like paper.
Can you imagine being crammed into an insanely crowded train or bus and unable to even move, turn around or flex your arms for hours… sometimes days, without food, water or a bathroom? Can you imagine the physical agony? Can you imagine the horror? And then, when you’re finally “freed” from this jail, you are yanked by your arms or legs, manhandled, and often thrown about by a giant ape 30 times your size. Your body is aching, but he doesn’t care. He’s just yanking you, like an object- shackling you up by your ankle while another giant ape (or machine) takes a stainless steel blade and cuts open your throat, hoping you bleed out and die, though often you’re fully awake, aware, conscious and feeling every bit of this horror. And if you aren’t a lucky chicken who dies immediately, you’ll then be tossed into a vat of boiling water, and drowned. Unless you survive that (which all too often many do), and then only suffer to slowly die as you make your way down a conveyor belt where other giants hack your body into bits until you black out…
And that’s how your unnaturally shortened 16-20 weeks of life on Earth end if you’re a chicken. And for no valid reason. Simply because some stupid, fucking apes think your rotting carcass tastes good.
This has to change. We must be the change we seek in the world. This is one of the 56 billion reasons I choose to live vegan.
