50,000chickens die in heat wave in NC

[cwydro]

Factory farming sucks.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/13/heat-wave-poultry_n_896812.html

[cwydro]

1. Think before you eat

that morning egg or that Sunday chicken roast.

[Peregrine Took]

2. So horribly unnatural for them to be all shoved together like that.

I'm so glad I'm a vegetarian and 'wish everyone was so this hideous factory farming would end.

[cwydro]

15. I have eight free range chickens

that are happy, but even they are feeling the heat.

I see them looking enviously at the ducks in their pool...but you can't get a chicken to get wet lol.

If my eight are unhappy in this ungodly heat - but still able to go where they want. I shudder to think of those trapped thousands in tiny boxes.

My girls can go wherever they want and have their shady hideyholes.

[ZombieHorde]

3. I should really go veggie again. It was less convenient, and I was constantly harassed, but I felt

better, and I wasn't contributing to so much suffering.

[handmade34]

25. you will get used

to the harassment... wise choice

[cwydro]

29. ...

:thumbsup:

[Ignis]

33. It's getting much easier.

I can't remember being in a restaurant recently that didn't offer at least one veggie option. That's a big change from 10-15 years ago.

[nc4bo]

4. Power was off for an hour as hot as it has been all week and today

and all those birds cramped up in such a confined space, no air circulation, it could only end badly.

[blaze]

5. If your power was off for an hour

......

censoring myself here....

If *my* house lost power for an hour, I would not die.

[nc4bo]

10. Ever seen how big a factory chicken house is? Those chickens are stuffed in there!

Fans circulate the air, they need electricity, not sure if they have any kind of air conditioning (I doubt it) but if they did, AC needs electricity also.

Imagine you being trapped in a metal building with temps around 100+, no air circulating, perhaps thousands of people crammed inside with you.

I hope you were being sarcastic.

[cwydro]

20. The chickens are piled upon one another in tiny shelves.

If you saw a chicken house, most likely you would never eat another factory egg or chicken.

It is truly horrifying.

[cwydro]

22. If it was off in my area and yours as well

I have to wonder if it's even worse than they said for the chickens and the turkeys.

NC is big chicken farming territory.

[nc4bo]

24. No outages in my neck of the woods but we've had our fair share

we used to have extremely frequent outages but I think they've been doing some upgrading and it's no where near as bad as it used to be. My home is nothing like a factory chicken house and there's only 3 or 4 of us (wayward kids come home every now and then)and a small dog living here at any given time. No comparison. If power goes out, we can always go outside, free to take a shower, even pile in the car and check on friends next town over. That's what we did when the tornadoes plowed through and power was out for a couple days.

Factory chickens have no options.

Google has some images of factory chicken and turkey houses for anyone who's never seen one or drove past one. It's easy to imagine how fast heat builds up in a metal building. With no air circulating, usually no trees shading them, extreme heat and humidity and the hundreds if not thousands of bodies in close contact with each other spells death.

Still I wonder why there was no back up generators available for emergency use. No water sprinklers either. I have no idea what happens when a big hurricane blows through. You'd think there would definitely be some back up power or farmers could be looking at total losses. I guess they just don't care and like someone else mentioned, perhaps turn the loss into their insurance companies.

[cwydro]

28. You are so right.

The chickens have no options.

And I know those buildings of which you speak...I drive by them daily and several Tyson plants as well.

My nightmare is getting behind a semi hauling chickens to slaughter...I usually just pull over.

[handmade34]

26. conditions are horrendous

for these birds, even when all systems are up!!

[blaze]

34. I don't know what I was thinking when I posted that.

My apologies.

[LiberalAndProud]

6. On the financial side, since Tyson (whoever) probably owns the birds

will they get the insurance settlement? Are the farmers protected financially when this happens?

And I agree, factory farming sucks.

[cwydro]

21. Good question...

Tyson is huge around here.

[lynne]

23. Depends on the type coverage they purchased -

- if they have blanket coverage on the poultry as "stock" or if they have coverage for damage/loss due to electrical outage, then they're covered less their deductible.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. One of the best books I have read... was Diet for a New America by the heir to the

Baskin Robbins ice cream empire.


http://www.amazon.com/Diet-New-America-John-Robbins/dp/0915811812/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310606947&sr=8-1
This well-documented expose of America's "factory farms" should prompt even die-hard meat-and-potatoes lovers to reevaluate their diets. Asserting that "we are ingesting nightmares for breakfast, lunch and dinner," Robbins, who is medical director of the California Institute for Health and Healing, details how livestock is raised under increasingly industrialized conditions by "agribusiness oligopolies." Grazing and foraging have given way to debeaking, tail-docking, dehorning and castration, and treatment with pesticides, hormones, growth and appetite stimulants, tranquilizers and antibiotics which, in turn, are assimilated by humans.

The author correlates our "protein obsessed" society with a higher incidence of arteriosclerosis, osteoporosis, cancer and other degenerative diseases, as well as freakish occurrences like premature puberty from estrogen contamination. As Robbins debunks nutritional myths perpetuated by the powerful meat and dairy industries (indicting as well his family's Baskin-Robbins ice-cream empire), this is sure to prove controversial. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

[dhill926]

11. great book.......

read it over 20 years ago, and have been vegetarian ever since.......

[AtomicKitten]

8. Factory farming is unnecessarily cruel and straight up immoral.

Mercy for Animals is about the only organization advocating against factory farming as far as I can tell. This stuff punches a hole in my heart. :cry:

[adigal]

17. Amen. n/t

[Renew Deal]

9. That's terrible

I wonder if it will affect food prices.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Does that mean that next week the supermarkets will have

bags of chicken for 39 cents/pound?

[cwydro]

16. Mmmm...

if so, I would give it a wide berth...;)

[mindwalker_i]

13. Some suspect fowl play

[cwydro]

19. Tsk tsk

or do I mean tuck tuck.

[Springer9]

14. More and More we are reliving the economy and weather

of the 1930's. Depression and heatwaves and drought killing the farm animals.

Can the Worlds Masters be getting ready for WW3 to fatten their wallets on the backs of us suckers?

[InvisibleTouch]

18. That is horrific.

The domestic chicken is descended from the red jungle fowl, which is a bird of tropical climes, and can normally withstand summer heat and humidity. But NOT when they are packed together so tight they can barely move! I'm not against keeping chickens for eggs and meat, but I despise factory farms. It's all about disregard for the animals' welfare in the name of boundless greed.

[cwydro]

27. It is horrific.

Watching my free rangers and their favorite thing to do is stretching...we laugh about the leg and wing stretches, because it is so cute. They do it frequently and they also like to sit on their sides and just chill. We call it side-sitting...but it is a natural chicken thing to do in the heat, take a dust bath and stretch out.

Factory chickens can't stretch or eat grass and bugs and run around annoying the house cats...I love my chickens. Believe it or not, they have distinct personalities and are very sweet; they like attention like any animal.

Breaks my heart to drive by all the factory farms here - they are all around us.

[ddeclue]

30. however will they be able to pay medical bills in North Carolina?

:rofl:

Just reminded me of the Michele Bachmann assertion on paying bills with chickens.

[flvegan]

31. Broiler chickens. Seems sort of ironic, doesn't it?

But then one could always consider going vegetarian and not supporting this sort of cruelty*.



*I know a great number of folks carefully choose where their meat comes from, and try their best to choose humane options. This does not apply to you.

[Mimosa]

32. Excellent.

Georgia used to be #1 poultry state, especially in N GA. Those critters ned AIR to grow and live before we fry or roast them. ;)

[Supply Side Jesus]

35. that's a lot of medical procedures