Even under the disguise of ?local farmers? factory farming still looks like?factory farming. Compassion in World Farming, the creators of the video below, say:
“No matter how they spin it, there is nothing humane or natural about factory farming.?
Perdue chicken is sold with the following claims on the packaging:
- Raised Cage Free
- All Vegetarian Diet
- No Animal By-Products
- No Antibiotics Ever
- Humanely Raised (recently removed)
In October of this year, Perdue and Kroger settled class-action lawsuits brought about by The Humane Society for the United States and Compassion Over Killing. Both companies have agreed to remove the word ?humane? from the chicken packaging of Harvestland by Perdue and Simple Truth by Kroger.
Perdue and other companies base their definition of ?humanely raised? upon the National Chicken Council’s (NCC) animal welfare guidelines. The NCC membership is 95 percent of the companies in the chicken industry, including Perdue.
Leah Garces, published on Food Safety News, writes,
?These guidelines allow for 30,000 birds to be given only two-thirds of a square foot each in a barren, dimly lit, totally enclosed warehouse. The birds have no natural light or fresh air. They sit on a bed of litter containing the feces of these 30,000 chickens, which is not changed once during their whole lives, and likely was not changed from the previous flock either. The guidelines do not even begin to address the fact that chickens today are made to grow so large so fast that they can hardly stand on their own two legs at six weeks, when they are ready for slaughter.?
?According to Compassion in World Farming, the chickens raised today are ?genetic monsters raised in poor conditions? that include:
- Bred to grow unnaturally fast and large ? These chickens reach market weight in just 42 days, compared to 80-120 days for slow growth and traditional breeds. This unnaturally high growth rate makes it difficult for the bird to walk and breathe.
- Overcrowding ? With over 30,000 birds crowded into one house, there is little space for the chickens to move around. Their legs become weak due to lack of exercise.
- Barren Environment ? Only litter is on the floor and the feces builds up over the bird’s life. In the last weeks of life the chickens spend over 80% of their time inactive and sitting in the waste.
- No Natural Light ? The houses are dimly lit and the day is extended to 18 hours or more to keep the birds eating. The birds do not perform natural behaviors and are sleep deprived.
Within the Statement on Poultry House Contracts posted on the Perdue?website, they state:
?We do have high standards for how we expect our birds to be raised. That’s the only way to consistently deliver a quality, wholesome product and to ensure the health and welfare of our birds and environmental sustainability across our supply chain. We work with our producers to ensure adherence to our strict standards for food safety, bird health, poultry welfare and environmental stewardship.?
?High standards? ? seriously, Perdue? I’d hate to see what lower standards looked like.
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Elizabeth Preston is a thirty-something wife and mother of three living in Florida. She is a fierce liberal with a passion?for equality and justice. She is a skeptic by nature and often the Facebook friend that rains on the urban legend parade with fact checking. Give her?Facebook page?a?like, follow her on?Twitter?and check out her personal blog,?My Four Ha? Pennies.
