Another undercover documentary having a big impact...

In the UK, the animal rights organization Viva! has filmed a very important undercover documentary about the egg hatchery racket. Even if you think you know what's happening in this business, please take four minutes and 53 seconds out of your day and watch this short film.

As Viva! points out in this film, about 40-50 million chicks are killed per year in Britain alone, most of them dying in electric mincers or gassed alive, as shown in this film.

This is heartbreaking footage. And if you don't live in England (and I don't), please don't go thinking, "Those are terrible conditions they've got in the UK. Good thing it's not that way here."

Remember: What you see in this film is Standard Operating Procedure in the egg-hatching industry all over the world. It is a profound immoral business, and this film shows precisely why that is the case.

Good for Viva! for filming these horrors. Films like this one are making a huge difference. Videos such as this one are getting lots and lots of hits on YouTube, and they're winning new converts for our side every day.

Two Tragedies Involving the Treatment of Chickens and Eggs

Chickens are beautiful animals. They're smart. They know math (more math than a fair number of human beings). They bond with their parents, brothers and sisters, and offspring. And each one is special and has a unique way of doing things.

Chickens also experience the worst treatment of any factory farm animals.

Above, I have posted a video by Mercy For Animals (MFA) showing the treatment of chickens at Ohio Fresh Eggs in Croton, Ohio. It is gory. It is heartbreaking. It shows chickens experiencing the worst treatment imaginable. And it is Standard Operating Procedure in chicken farms across the country.

It is sad to see these beautiful animals being violently de-beaked. It is sadder to see them bleeding and hurt and developing terrible sores from their ghastly treatment. But the saddest thing of all is the look of resignation on their faces. They are the living dead. They've given up on life. They are so used to being packed in together like so many ruthlessly exploited commodities.

My friends, it is so, so painful to watch.

If you don't believe this is how chickens are treated in farm after farm after farm across North America, do yourself a favor: Watch MFA's video investigation of the Weaver Brothers Egg Farm in Ohio. Or watch this video by East Bay Animal Advocates of a California Egg Farm. Watch this video by Compassion Over Killing shot at multiple egg farms. Watch this Associated Press video on the horrible treatment of baby chicks.

I could go on and on and on. You get the picture.

By the way, last month I wrote a column for The Waterloo Region Record about factory farm fires that generated angry letters to the editor and a counterpoint column. Interestingly, not a single one of these people who didn't like me pointing out how ghastly and immoral it is that tens of thousands of animals die horrific deaths in factory fires each year in Canada offered a direct challenge to my assertions.

When confronted with the truth, foes of animal rights seldom challenge the truth. More typically, they lash out at the messenger or try to portray animal rights advocates as nut cases or enemies of farmers. It's a load of garbage. And it's a fallacy. We're not the enemies of farmers. We are opposed to anyone who abuses and mistreats animals. And we are determined to use our voices to help the voiceless, no matter what the cost.

Yesterday, a fire at a factory farm in Abbotsford, British Columbia killed 32,000 broiler chickens. Add that to the almost 80,000 animals who have already perished in farm fires in Canada since January 2010 and now you are looking at MORE THAN 100,000 ANIMALS WHO HAVE DIED IN FARM FIRES IN 2010 ALONE (and we're only in June, people). See the article on the Abbotsford fire here, complete with a video.

There will always be men and women who will do their damnedest to justify this sorry state of affairs. They are the heirs of the same inhumane worldview of the men and women who defended slavery in the 19th Century. History has left slavery's defender's in the dust. In time, History will do the same to those who seek to justify the terrible treatment of factory farm animals.

Time for some Pie in the Sky... With Vegan Ice Cream on Top! (Well, maybe not... let's face it... vegan ice cream sucks...)

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is generating a lot of controversy as a result of its decision to make public undercover video footage shot inside of America's two largest egg farms. Apparently, the film shows "workers slamming chickens into metal bins and dead animals littering cages." (Source) The footage was shot secretly inside of facilities belonging to Rose Acre Farms and Rembrandt Enterprises, both located in Iowa.

The video footage has sparked a war of words between HSUS and the food industry. Unfortunately, the debate has nothing to do with the rights of the hens. As HSUS President Wayne Pacelle announced at a news conference in Des Moines yesterday: "We're not asking for an end to the confinements of animals in buildings. We're asking they not be crammed into cages and crates barely larger than their bodies." (Source)

He went on to say: "Those same producers are producing cage-free eggs by the millions to account for the growing demand for these products. We're not talking about a pie-in-the-sky alternative." (Source)

Well, I say: Let's talk about pie-in-the-sky alternatives. These puny animal welfare measures do nothing but provide short-term feel-good solutions to lull food consumers back into a state of denial. How is it going to change the harsh conditions and rampant abuses in these egg-laying facilities to switch from caged hens to cage-free hens? How will that help one iota? Will it stop workers from slamming the chickens? Will it make life better for the chickens? Will they be anything other than slaves, forced to lay eggs for human beings who don't need eggs to survive?

Nobody talks about pie-in-the-sky alternatives anymore. People are too focused on pragmatic solutions. But if nobody aims high, great change will never come. In 1850, abolitionism was about as "pie in the sky" as you can get. The handful of brave men and women who wanted to free African Americans from bondage in the middle of the 19th Century faced persecution, ostracism, even death. And they did NOT have the press or courts or politicians on their side.

But they had something far more powerful going for them: They had right on their side. They had justice on their side. And these are far more than simple abstractions...

Use that damning video footage for something far more meaningful than a debate over caged versus cage-free eggs. Use it to show the beauty of birds that bond with their parents and offspring, understand mathematics, enjoy a day out in the sun as much of the rest of us, and have a right to live full and peaceful lives.

Pie in the sky? Sure. Right and just? Yes.