Previous to being actually employed by an international poultry company, I thought this was going to be like all those PETA brochures they leave lying around the Brickyard...


Turns out, in my experience, it isn't as bad as the internet would have you believe.


Poultry is the commodity, and people lose money when they lose birds, so they don't want to be killing birds un-necessarily or having them die all willy-nilly because that affects profit.

They actually had quite a bit more space than I expected, and their living conditions weren't abominable for the point of the industry. Farming is a business just like any other, and while nobody should dispute that animals feel pain and suffering, plenty of people eat meat as part of a balanced diet(we straight up have canines, yo) and it must come from somewhere.


Anyone else worked in the same type setting and have better/same/worse experiences?

3/29/2008 2:52:06 AM

I will say I never got the opportunity to go to the processing plant, but I hear that is pretty uncool.

I want to come up with a better, more humane and efficient way of processing, but it would take some doing...

3/29/2008 3:04:53 AM

that's cool.

3/29/2008 6:58:30 AM

wow, just because the bird doesnt die before its proper slaughtering time doesnt mean the factory farm system is okay. Many chickens are injected with so much hormone to make them grow huge that their legs are unable to support the weight and break. Basically at that point they just lay in their filth, breathing until the time comes for them to be killed.


But its not as bad as Peta makes it out to be, right?

3/29/2008 8:48:52 AM

i'm not going to lie, i saw this thread title and immediately got pissed off. i expected the typical tww, bleeding heart, omg all animal farmers are hitleresque devils, type thread. i want to thank you. this is, by far, the most intelligent, reasonable, rational, accurate, and any other adjectives i can think of, thread on this subject i have read. You have seen it first hand and have an informed opinion. as for processing, it isnt as bad as it appears either. its just nasty, not really cruel

3/29/2008 8:50:18 AM

^^just like that one

3/29/2008 8:53:37 AM

Quote :

"Many chickens are injected with so much hormone to make them grow huge that their legs are unable to support the weight and break. Basically at that point they just lay in their filth, breathing until the time comes for them to be killed. "

That is entirely untrue. Growth hormone has been illegal in chickens for a few decades now. Since processing plants are under tight federal regulation, if a inspector found growth hormone in a chicken, the farmer and whoever he works for would be in a shitload of hurt. Any huge birds we have now is due to the meticulous planning of Geneticists. I have personally done a necropsy on at least 50 birds from layers to barnyard to broiler, and I assure you their legs look fine. Please actually witness something in person before you pass something you read in a Peta pamphlet as fact...or better yet, stop by the Poultry Science building and pick up some info.

[Edited on March 29, 2008 at 9:00 AM. Reason : ...]

3/29/2008 8:58:52 AM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fzDn8jxHIu0
watch the birds' eyes near the end of the clip


http://youtube.com/watch?v=PFgbHK6yP2g

a goose gets beaten and that elicits the sympathy of the wolfweb, how funny

3/29/2008 9:02:27 AM

I see nothing wrong with the chicken movie. You don't like it, then raise your own animals and kill them yourself for food. Meat market isn't pretty, obviously, because animals are fuzzy and warm with cute little eyes. But you find a better way of feeding people at the prices they demand, and I'll personally incorporate it into my industry.

3/29/2008 9:07:37 AM

From your video it looks as if you should be upset at Mexicans, not TWWs.

3/29/2008 9:09:36 AM

Those were KFC farms in America and they were White Americans, not Mexicans, that were stomping chickens and ripping them apart alive with their own hands for fun at the end of the second clip

3/29/2008 9:11:33 AM

Quote :

" That is entirely untrue. Growth hormone has been illegal in chickens for a few decades now. Since processing plants are under tight federal regulation, if a inspector found growth hormone in a chicken, the farmer and whoever he works for would be in a shitload of hurt. Any huge birds we have now is due to the meticulous planning of Geneticists."

Because "flip over" is a great way to die.

3/29/2008 9:17:32 AM

no growth hormones but broilers and meat-type poultry breeds have been selectively bred to grow huge. Broilers are slaughtered before reaching 10 weeks of age. Most meat type birds that live past their typical slaughter age are quickly crippled by the mass amount of muscle they are carrying and have trouble walking. It would be cruel to not slaughter them at a younger age.

Egg layers are different from dual purpose and meat-type. They've been selectively bred for a purpose. I do disagree with battery cages (egg-laying cages for you non animal science people)

of course the producer doesn't want the birds to die before processing. However, this doesn't mean the birds are always treated humanely in intensive confinement.



Animal Rights (PETA, ALF) is different from Animal Welfare (SPCA and groups/individuals that suport the humane treatment of animals.
Those that support animal rights believe that animals should not be kept by humans for ANY purpose. Including animals kept in zoos and as pets. PETA is crap.

3/29/2008 9:26:49 AM

I guess the entire poultry science department is going to show up in this thread,

Another point on "injecting hormones into chickens" to make money in poultry you need 1000's of pounds of meat going out daily, you only make a few cents profit off each pound. There's no way in hell your going to blow $5-10 a bird on Growth Hormone injections. Also GH doesn't work the same way in chickens as it does in mammals.

3/29/2008 9:59:45 AM

They actually keep chicken houses darkish to keep birds from moving around a lot.
Movement=energy being used=weight loss=less profit

Dark chicken houses+Feed=Large birds

This IMO is perfectly fine and not inhumane.

3/29/2008 10:25:58 AM

They're fucking chickens. There are people, humans, in this world that need your help. Worry about them first before you get caught up in your self-righteous crusades about a bunch of birds.

3/29/2008 11:14:52 AM

Quote :

"They're fucking chickens. There are people, humans, in this world that need your help."

3/29/2008 11:23:34 AM

I also worked on a Broiler operation this past summer.

It didn't affect me at all.

My consumption of chicken doubled for some reason over that summer.

3/29/2008 11:42:42 AM

Quote :

"There are people, humans, in this world that need your help. "

They way I see this, is that animals are innocent. People are hate filled, discriminating, crime committing, immoral, selfish, self-centered creatures.

Animals don't crucify each other.

Animals dont put each other in gas chambers and incinerate each other.

Animals don't drop nuclear weapons on civilian cities.

3/29/2008 12:23:34 PM

hmm...since when did the lounge turn into the soap box

3/29/2008 12:25:23 PM

The Lounge is intended for informational, or otherwise engaging and intelligent discussion.

The Soap Box is intended for pseudo-intellectuals to argue their dogmatic beliefs full well knowing none of them is going to honestly listen or consider the other's opinion. But they will get uppity about it.


For example, I would like to take this opportunity to say I was wrong. I stated that chickens are given growth hormone. Apparently, this was a mistake on my part. They are only modified genetically, which is not the same thing.

The Lounge is

3/29/2008 12:34:20 PM

Quote :

"They way I see this, is that animals are innocent. People are hate filled, discriminating, crime committing, immoral, selfish, self-centered creatures. Animals don't crucify each other. Animals dont put each other in gas chambers and incinerate each other. Animals don't drop nuclear weapons on civilian cities."

haha this is dumb logic, animals can be as cruel to each other as humans. just b/c they dont have the brain capacity and opposable thumbs to be creative doesnt make them innocent.


that said, i am still for the humane treatment of animals

3/29/2008 1:19:46 PM

Quote :

"The Soap Box is intended for pseudo-intellectuals to argue their dogmatic beliefs full well knowing none of them is going to honestly listen or consider the other's opinion."

3/29/2008 1:26:20 PM

I helped my uncle slaughter 100 chickens he raised himself for personal consumption.

They tasted great without preservatives.

3/29/2008 1:28:02 PM

Yeah the food I had in Germany had no preservatives.. that shit was so good

3/29/2008 1:30:24 PM

Meat is delicious. I don't care how it gets to me...as long as it gets to me.

3/29/2008 1:44:24 PM

it seems like every PETA person i ever interact with is completely blinded by a few select instances......e.g. they see a video on youtube and assume the entire industry is just like it

there are always going to be abuses in any industry

why is it ok for other animals to eat each other, but wrong for us?? Why can a lion chase down a gazelle and rip it apart in the middle of field, but wrong for me to eat a chicken that was raised for consumption?

3/29/2008 2:02:57 PM

Quote :

"Meat is delicious. I don't care how it gets to me...as long as it gets to me."

3/29/2008 2:10:44 PM

Where I live, you can get your regular chickens, and also you can get what are called "country chickens". (I am talking about infront-of-you-slaughtered chickens, not frozen)

Here is the difference between them:

Regular chickens:

$1.25/lb
Humongous
Taste normal
High in fat
Bones easily crushable by human jaws


"Country" chickens:

$2.75/lb
Skinny
Taste like gourmet food
Low in fat
Bones uncrushable by human jaws


Yeah, intensive farming is OK!!!

3/29/2008 3:04:12 PM

Someone like The Judge who hates humans and loves animals is way more fucked up than someone who is merely indifferent to animals and likes their fellow man.

[Edited on March 29, 2008 at 4:22 PM. Reason : p.s. Get some psychiatric help]

3/29/2008 4:22:01 PM

I have a poultry degree and I don't have any problem with mass produced chicken, but I raise a lot of pullets for backyard flocks and I'm going to try raising a couple of hundred broilers on the ground in the next few weeks and direct market them. There is a demand for locally produced and processed meat, so I'm going to see how it turns out.

3/29/2008 4:28:18 PM

I actually worked in the Pathology Lab, and turkeys were our thing.


I was responsible for gassing 10 poults from each flock that hatched at the hatchery every day. Some days it was 30, somedays it was 70. We then tested to ensure the birds were not infected with salmonella. They were cute and fluffy and I didn't like killing them, but I did it.


I did necropsies on several hundred birds through my internship, and they were all gassed with CO2. This is an approved method.


I went to several farms, brooder, meat, and breeder, and in all instances the birds were large but not incapacitiated. The older toms can't fly, but they are fully capable of walking around, eating, and drinking...living, as it were. There are always outliers, but as a general rule, it is not as horrible as people would have you believe.

3/29/2008 5:50:49 PM

im rather tired of this argument that pops up on here about every 18 months or so


as to growth hormones: they have to be injected

who the fuck is going to inject ~30 thousand broilers(per house) with growth hormone?


common sense people

3/29/2008 5:57:39 PM

Quote :

"I was responsible for gassing 10 poults from each flock that hatched at the hatchery every day. Some days it was 30, somedays it was 70... I didn't like killing them, but I did it. "

3/29/2008 6:39:19 PM

Meat is delicious. I don't care how it gets to me...as long as it gets to me.

3/29/2008 8:25:52 PM

Yes, my friends took to calling me a turkey nazi...


I don't really eat turkey anymore, but it has less to do with anything ethical as the taste makes me think of the smells in the lab. Man, coming back after memorial day weekend in 80 degree weather when the dead bin hadn't been taken for 3 days....

3/29/2008 8:54:03 PM

Godwin's Law, folks.

3/29/2008 9:11:46 PM

Quote :

"Meat is delicious"

Yeah, and what some people are saying is that meat tastes orders of magnitude better if it is not intensively farmed, if it is not fed its natural diet, etc.

So whether you come from animal welfare camp or the carnivore camp, you should care about how it gets to you.

3/29/2008 9:17:54 PM

not to mention it is orders of magnitude healthier

cows weren't meant to eat corn

humans weren't meant to have everything in their diet come from corn

3/29/2008 10:02:50 PM

did man even know of corn like 10,000 years ago?

3/29/2008 10:27:52 PM

Read the first like quarter of The Omnivore's Dilemma if you want to know about corn.

3/29/2008 10:40:11 PM

Thanks but no thanks. I have a lurking feeling that it will result in the same conclusion that I've heard from a variety of sources: it's not good.

3/29/2008 10:47:46 PM

I too am adverse to reading materials that may cause me to reflect upon and/or reconsider my viewpoints

3/29/2008 10:55:37 PM

The Omnivore's Dilemma is a damn good book

3/30/2008 1:28:16 AM

Quote :

"Thanks but no thanks. I have a lurking feeling that it will result in the same conclusion that I've heard from a variety of sources: it's not good."

false

it isnt that its not good its just not good in the huge quantities that we eat it

3/30/2008 1:44:37 AM

Quote :

"did man even know of corn like 10,000 years ago?"

Wikipedia says yes.

3/30/2008 2:44:54 AM

Quote :

"There are people, humans, in this world that need your help. Worry about them first"

yea, thats happening

3/30/2008 2:49:11 AM

Quote :

"So whether you come from animal welfare camp or the carnivore camp, you should care about how it gets to you."

Sorry...I still don't care.

I'm healthier than about 99% of the population...and I could give two shits about the details that go into the meat that I eat.

3/30/2008 3:33:24 AM

^ it is not just for health, but for taste as well.

Quote :

"Yeah, and what some people are saying is that meat tastes orders of magnitude better if it is not intensively farmed, if it is fed its natural diet, etc."

if you don't care about the taste of your food, that's your prerogative.

3/30/2008 5:35:01 AM

I worked down east in a hog processing plant for a few months. its pretty nasty work. not quite as bad as my roadkill picking up job, but it still sucked. I work on a beef cattle farm some now, and we occasionaly take cows to the butcher. they don't suffer too much, they get shot in the head with an air powered gun with a big bolt that goes into the cows head. our cows are "organic" and grass fed so they lead pretty decent lives. its also a small operation, so they aren't crowded too much.

IMHO I figure that if you're going to eat meat you should at least have experience killing an animal and taking it through the cleaning process. taking a life, even an animals gave me a healthy respect for what life is and means. I'm a meat hunter, meaning I don't hunt for sport, I hunt (kill) to put food on the table. don't have to any more. I take no enjoyment out of taking a life. I still eat meat though.

3/30/2008 5:37:34 AM