McDonald’s chickens sent to gas chamber

[emad]

Times
Jonathan Leake, Science Editor

MCDONALD’S is trialling the use of gas chambers that it claims may be a more humane way to kill the 10m chickens needed each year for its McNuggets and other ranges in Britain.

The multinational has been criticised by animal welfare groups for its present method in which chickens have their throats cut after being stunned in baths of electrified water.

The new technique, where the chickens are knocked out by nitrogen and argon mixed with carbon dioxide, is said to ensure they are dead before their throats are cut.

Amanda Pierce, a spokeswoman for the burger giant, which has 1,200 restaurants feeding 2.5m Britons a day, said the method was still under scrutiny but could reduce suffering.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1431374,00.html

[Squatch]

1. Cool, I hope it pans out.

[Bonobo]

2. Equating Chickens with victims of Nazis?

Wow, that's pretty ridiculous. Oh, the article isn't "hinting" at that comparison? Sorry, guess I read into it too much (sarcasm).

Edited for grammar.

[TahitiNut]

8. I must admit to wondering whether it's kosher. It'd be ironic, if so.

Indeed, "ironic" would be an understatement.

[JohnLocke]

17. It isn't, I don't think.

[robcon]

35. It wouldn't be kosher

Among other things, the chicken would have to die by bleeding to death, be plucked without steaming the feathers from the skin, would have to be dipped for almost an hour in salt water to remove blood, and the procedure would have to be supervised by an observant Jew (normally a rabbi.)

[bluedeminredstate]

3. I bet McDonalds is apoplectic

over this info coming out.
I know what the first thing that jumped into my mind was...
Didn't this go out of vogue over sixty years ago?

[achtung_circus]

9. This info isn't "coming out"

There has been a long journey towards humane slaughter. "We" used to kill animals with axes. The electric bath followed by exanguination for poultry is a huge step past chopping heads off. The use of atmospheric slaughter is not new. Many plants use some variety of this method. Typically crates of chickens are moved from a truck through a chamber where exposure to some gas causes death. In the best plants the unloading process takes place under blue lights which calms the birds. The processing of crates rather than birds minimizes handling and the associated stress for the birds.

Equating humane slaughter with death camps is inappropriate.

[jmowreader]

4. And now the Environmentalist Movement will be on their asses

They're going to kill chickens with CO2? Can anyone say "greenhouse gas"?

Still, it's better than just cutting their heads off and letting them flop around like we do here in the US.

[Massacure]

5. CO2 can be vacuumed out and rebottled, can't it?

[jmowreader]

10. Dude! You know some of it's going to leak out!

I also wonder what the price of this is going to be.

[benburch]

14. Ummm....

The CO2 they use was taken from the atmosphere in the first place!

Net change in atmospheric CO2 - Zero.

Find out how a chemical is produced before you go calling it bad!

[jmowreader]

25. There are easier ways to produce CO2 than atmospheric

Get some sodium bicarbonate, mix it with industrial acid, and you have plenty of CO2 at a price lower than the electricity required to extract it from the air by cryogenic extraction--repeatedly compressing air into a high-pressure chamber, cooling the compressed air then releasing the compressed air into a low-pressure chamber, and collecting the components of the air as they condense into liquid.

Plus you don't have to store CO2 on site--just sodium bicarbonate and a strong acid.

[Massacure]

16. They don't seem to have a problem with leaks on the space station airdock.

Besides, as benburch said, it is taken from the atmosphere anyways.

[DownNotOut]

6. "And now the Environmentalist Movement will be on their asses'...

And how is that bad. Many of us here at DU are the 'Environmentalist Movement'.


DownNotOut

[jmowreader]

12. It's just a change of "people on their asses"

Right now the animal welfare people are pissed because McDonalds kills chickens inhumanely.

Next week the environmentalists will be pissed because McDonalds kills chickens with a mixture of gases Guaranteed To Blow A Fifty Foot Hole In The Ozone. Y'know, like I am. There's got to be some way to humanely kill chickens without exhausting tons of CO2 into the air.

And the week after that, whatever the Brits have that corresponds to the Center for Science in the Public Interest will be pissed because they found argon in the chicken meat.

Everything McDonalds does and everything they do not do is guaranteed to piss someone off.

[RC]

13. And where does this CO2 come from?

They condense it out of the air. The net gain/loss here is Zero.
The same goes for the nitrogen and argon.
Big business separating and bottling the components of air.

[AlbizuX]

7. umm...

asphyxiation is a more humane way to die?

Why don't they just pass them through quick, head-cutting machines. No pain, and quick...

[benburch]

15. I nearly died of asphyxiation once while working on an inert gas system.

About as totally painless as could be, except when I hit my head falling.

[mccoyn]

37. The nitrogen knocks them out.

I think the nitrogen knocks them out so they don't feel the asphyxiation. This would be less painful than any head chopping, because the brain is aware for a short time without a body.

[seg4527]

11. i work at wendy's

and it really makes me sick to even think about all the animals that have to die. i know i'm not a vegetarian so it makes me hypocrite, but when you see the huge amount of meat people order in just one day (we are a very very busy restaraunt, #1 in our region) it has a bigger impact than just eating a serving of meat a day does.

[kostya]

18. This idea does nothing to address the inhumane way the chickens are

raised and housed, nor does it do anything about the environmental degradation that occurs (not to mention the food production inefficiency) of using meat as food in the first place. Chickens are typically kept in cages in which they can barely move, fed all sorts of chemicals and drugs, which cause their bodies to grow in distorted ways (so you get those big drumsticks or larger breast muscle, etc.) and they are not treated humanely in any way when they are handled and transported. Same goes for other animals we think we need to eat. - K

[RebelOne]

19. Agreed. I couldn'[t have said it better.

And not to mention that most of those poor chickens are debeaked.

[ResistTheCoup]

20. You must have seen this video as well

http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=bea_kfc&Player=wm&speed=_med

Speaking of de-beaking and inhumane treatment...I stumbled on this video thru a blog and it is really disturbing.

I know that I'm a hypocrite, too, because I'm a meat eater. But I also know that if I had to actually kill and prepare my food I would become a vegetarian overnight. My son has recently decided to become a vegan for a number of reasons, environmental, etc. and I'm thinking about doing the same.

[RebelOne]

22. No, I have not seen the video, nor do I need to.

I am an animal rights advocate and I have known for a long time what goes on behind the scenes at these chicken farms. I am also a vegetarian.

[ResistTheCoup]

23. And I applaud you for living your beliefs

More people should do the same.

While you don't need to see the video, there are a lot of people out there who should but who never will. Unfortunately, most people would rather live in denial so they don't have to change. It seems to be the case with a lot of what's going on in the world.

If you don't mind me asking, how long have you been a vegetarian? Was it something you decided to do on your own or were you raised vegetarian? Also, could you recommend any books/websites that would help someone who wants to change to a vegetarian lifestyle?

Thanks.

[ResistTheCoup]

28. Over??

?

[Ms_Mary]

26. Free range, better for them and the people who eat them. Not to be crass..

[Liberty Belle]

32. Agreed. I can't quite give up meat...

But I do try to buy free-range chickens. At least they haven't been kept in cages and debeaked (another horrible thing KFC gained notoriety for a few years back).

[kostya]

34. Try giving it up totally for one day a week, then two days, etc.

Think of the environmental costs as well to using animals as food. It's far more efficient to eat the food that the animals eat than to let them process it and then eat them. This means a lot more energy (oil) and tillage of the soil as well as environmental degradation due to animal waste getting into streams and groundwater. Search around for alternatives, check out a couple of veggie cookbooks from the library and see the variety you can consume. I hear you though, I still slip back on the dairy products, they are hard to avoid. - K

[Bill Lumbergh]

38. Then you're no better

How can you lecture about eating meat when you eat dairy yourself. If no one ate dairy there would be no need for factory farms, etc, etc.

[AlienGirl]

40. Wow, what a harsh judgement...

So if you can't do something environmentally responsible 100%, you might as well make no effort at all? If you drive a car, don't bother recycling because "you're no better" than every other polluter out there? :eyes:

Or is it only vegetarians you feel so defensive toward?

Tucker

[Bill Lumbergh]

41. Hardly, my dear friend.

I support anyone's decision to go vegetarian, vegan, or to eat meat. But I dislike it when someone who is not a full vegetarian(vegan) chastises others for eating meat.

It's hypocrisy in my eyes.

I say this as a 5-year vegan. Note that I don't criticize meat eaters.

[Liberty Belle]

39. It's partly a practical problem.

My son's allergic to soy. Other family members have other allergies, or just likes and dislikes. So it's tough to come up with non-meat meals that provide enough protein, etc.

That said, we have cut back--though more for belt-tightening in the far-from-thriving Bush economy.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

46. Dairy is sort of hard to avoid

But the benefits are great.
But eating dairy I guess makes you" imperfect"?
How dare you have a flaw and speak!!!(sarcasm all the way)
Ha, A wyze man told me once "no one is perfect."
And no one has to be perfect to have a good idea.

[quiet.american]

21. OMG, never a better time to get serious about vegetarianism n/t

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

44. I'll second that motion

quietly, so the "real men" don't get riled up.
We wouldn't want any "real men" to get riled up now would we?

[Clark2008]

24. Umm... no comments on how all that nitrogen

and argon and carbon dioxide in the chicken's blood streams will effect US when we eat them?

[Jesus H. Christ]

31. Umm, yeah. It won't.

Argon and nitrogen are harmless to humans, they're both inert and one is 70% of the atmosphere. As for CO2, humans produce plenty by themselves.

Jeez, high school science anybody?

[sportndandy]

27. Meat is Murder. Are You "Lovin' It?"

You have a choice: Eat to Live or Live to Eat. How about Eat so others may live, and live so others may eat.

[Jesus H. Christ]

29. Yes.

It's delicious.

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

42. cool saying --I totally AGREE-

If more people would just "control" what goes into their mouths and what comes out of their mouths the world would be alot better off.

We all have a choice.

[Placebo]

30. Mmm, Gas McNuggets

:9

[GoddessOfGuinness]

33. That's nice.

I still won't eat there.

[egoprofit]

36. what about the cows?

i've seen very disturbing footage of how some cows are cut open while alive and left to stumble around while they bleed to death...

what about the cows?!

http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.asp?video=agri_short

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

43. sick shit

"real men" don't give a flyin f *k.
It's fine to inflict harm and pain on animals as long as we get something we like out of it.
Real men enjoy ignoring.
Ignore + ance = bliss

I'm "Lovin it"

That's a decomposing body part yer gnawing on!
People 'roun here collect them there dismembered body parts and they horde them.
An X-ray vision view shows nearly every building holding stockpiles with blood and all the drippings (some buildings with incredibly massive quantities).
Cherished they seem to be.
Sure feels like the modern Jetsons society of the future if we just pretend.

[jdonaldball]

45. So, now the Vegans can cue the "Schindler's List" music ;-)

Nobody should eat McDonalds chicken anyway.
But fresh, cleanly killed chickens?
Here, chickie chickie! MMMM!