Wegmans Cruelty
Wegmans Cruelty is a half hour documentary produced by a small investigative team from the organization Compassionate Consumers. Organization members contacted Wegmans Food Markets to try to hold some meaningful dialogue about the conditions at Wegmans Egg Farm, and were then misled and dismissed by Wegmans representatives. The team set out to capture actual footage inside the farm and create a film based on their experience.
The film features statements from Wegmans representatives, interviews with the investigators, and footage of what life and death is like inside of a battery cage facility. Approximately 98% of all eggs produced in the United States come from hens that are housed in battery cages. Often unknowingly, customers are supporting the practices of modern egg farming by purchasing eggs.
Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. is a 68-store supermarket chain with stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia. The family-owned company, founded in 1916, is recognized as an industry leader and innovator. Wegmans has been named one of the 'Top 100 Companies to Work For' by Fortune Magazine for the last several years. In 2005, Wegmans ranked #1 on the list.
The was filmed in 2005. The demand for humane farm animal treatment has come a long way in 13 years. I'm interested to see what their current practice is.
Ok JoAnn posts something from the book of Proverbs that supports those of us who are against this abuse and she is in turn abused by those she is in agreement with?? WoW
"A righteous man regards the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel".
It also says the same life that was breathed into mankind was breathed into every living thing. So yes Jonathan R, they are sentient. Chickens never lived in cages like that by nature, so why would it be good now?
I stop buying wegmans' born free eggs after this documentary. They are never born free. Wegmans just use the gimmick to deceive customers
I just got done watching this show , okja, Lucent and have done much soul searching and have read all the previous comments. My first reaction is profane sadness. I I find it hard to comprehend that any person can think it is ok to treat other creatures as I have seen here and witnessed through research and personal experience. We do it to each other so I see the trend. I can't even fathom the argument that they feel or don't feel because as a human being I can see it is a terrible environment that they are being forced to endure. I can see the hideous acts of cruelty they have to wake up with and die in. That should be enough to know it is WRONG. What is the worst is we as a society have become complacent and pass on the responsibilities to others. We are the others whom should be watching, supervising, regulating, protecting and monitoring what is acceptable behavior. WE LET IT HAPPEN!! If you don't like something don't be complacent but speak out, vote, boycott, Quit, campaign and instill the truths in others that you believe we should behave and treat other living beings. I will start today and try to make a change and hope you will too. Every small attempt forward is so much better than sitting back and watching the horrors envelope our world. Now is your time!
@lolwut ---
>>Those chickens are agricultural products, they are not pets.<<
Aah, got it! They're "just chickens", agricultural products," so we have every right to be cruel & cause them pain...in other words, if I decide it's food, then I can pretty much do whatever to hell I want to it.
No one is trying to make them pets. We are trying to be compassionate people as opposed to some prick that feels it's quite okay to cause undo pain & misery to a living thing because it has something *you* want to eat!
As for whether they "feel" anything...do you? I don't get that impression by what you've posted here. I don't know how to break this to you but in multiple tests of cognitive & behavioral sophistication, chickens outperform not just dogs & cats but also four-year-old human children! University of Bristol’s Dr. Christine Nicol, author of the review paper titled The Intelligent Hen, explains “[s]tudies over the past 20 years have revealed their finely-honed sensory capacities, their ability to think, solve puzzles, draw inferences, apply logic & plan ahead.”
The paper includes dozens of examples of cognitive, behavioral & emotional complexity in chickens-all examples of the animals exhibiting capacities that cannot be explained by simple instinct.
What do you think Grandma did to that chicken when they wanted to eat it? Chopped it's head off, of course. Grandma didn't worry about the feelings of "Chubbie Chicken" when she did that! So maybe it was happy and frolicking when it was alive but it still ended up decapitated.
Buy cage free eggs. This is something that all grocery stores will have to do is evolve with the consumer. If people want cage free eggs and pastured meat then the store will carry it.
There is NO excuse,ever,for cruelty,whether it be animal or human.MY parents had a chicken farm ,chickens came and went from their house to yard. We had a cow for our personal use(milk,butter,cheese. a beautiful vegetable garden. Never had to use chemical fertilizers. Yes it took time.
No,we were not wealthy!OR greedy.Now ,I'm aware of how much has changed.
I choose to eat organic--more expensive?Yes.Life is made up of choices. There are those who could care less about food quality,but must have the latest i-phone ,and every other electronic toy known to man. Social skills? Few!
It's an unsafe world for our children.and yet parents willingly take them to eat junk food at fast food chains.Good food and sitting down to dinner as a family each evening?Can't do that--Soccer,football,hockey practice etc.
So,it gives me hope when I see the number of organic farms springing up in WNY. Farms where the kids have to help and appreciate what a real strawberry,apple,etc,tastes like. Taking care of farm animals and knowing that some of these farm animals are used for meat and will be processed as humanely as possible either by the farmer or a small slaughter house nearby.
In a near perfect world folks would be busy with the important things in life.BUT as I said,each one of us makes choices.
Some of these posts are so black and white. To those who do not think livestock is "sentient," it is not really worth engaging in a dialogue with you folks - years of research, and just basic common sense, would show you to be incorrect. However it is also a bit misguided to presume that supermarket chickens should be frolicking outside, and eating bugs from the dirt. Documentaries like this expose real problem - namely, that animal well-being has been largely (if not completely) neglected in the rapid industrialization of the livestock business. Simply exposing this will hopefully enlighten both consumers and operators, and drive the incorporation animal welfare into future process improvements. I don't believe we have to sacrifice cheap food by introducing a modicum of animal welfare into the process.
I think JoAnna is right. This is a moral question, and God is the only source of morality. It says in Matthew 23:37 "Oh Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets and stoneth them that are sent onto her! How often would I have gathered her children together! Even as a HEN gathereth her CHICKEN under her wings, and ye would not." So our Lord Jesus even acknowledged that chickens are capable of compassion....
I love this video. People at this farm would pressure wash the barns between flocks with a chemical that had a warning, it was not to be sprayed or atomized, yet would be aspirated in the pressure washers. This went on for years, many people became sick from this, definitely acute sickness, possibly chronic conditions. During 2003, they were building new laying house 10, (first of several new barns), lots of welding was being done in the welding shop that didn't have an exhaust or ventilation system, and the shop was inundated with other shops due to expansion and had no doors or windows directly outside. People would become sick in this atmosphere too, especially when galvanized metal was being welded. By strictly enforced policy, employees would be reprimanded and possibly terminated for smoking a cigarette in the welding shop that had no exhaust or ventilation, but that same person would arch 6013 on galvanized, and others in the shop were expected to work in it. Doctors wouldn't believe that the number one company, in the country would subject their employees to such conditions. As far as law enforcement, they were there, definitely in the mid 90s, as a 2year undercover sting operation took down the marijuana king pin of the farm (can't blame anyone for wanting to catch a buzz after working there all day). By marijuana king pin, I mean, he grew pot and sold it to workers, but law enforcement was in the company, undercover, and uniformed, they didn't care about CAFO or OSHA laws, just the marijuana, and the break in, respectively. People were being abused, laws, rules and regulations were not being followed for the welfare of humans too. Despite pleas for help, to the company, the doctors, even OSHA(who warned employees, names would have to be given to the company with time notice before an inspection, incase of a disgruntled employee). Make no mistake, employees were warned, the threat of OSHA, would be career suicide.
What a great feeling of priority the employees felt when a group of people broke into this place and exposed to everyone the abuse being done to the animals there. Or to find there co-worker was an undercover, but wasn't there to right the wrong done to employees, she was there to give out pot tickets. It's a comforting feeling knowing there is a group of people out there willing to risk themselves to expose the abuse of the animals we raise to eat, and that law enforcement will go on a two year undercover sting to protect the employees from a substance much less harmful than the substances they were breathing all day in the workplace. I LOVE THIS VIDEO! Makes me laugh.
One more thing: If watching this really saddens you, then you're ******, and I'll tell you why. The reason this seems bad to you is because you're making the mistake of imagining yourself being treated like that, without also taking into account the fact that these chickens don't know anything else. They don't have computers, video games, cell phones, and entertainment. They don't REQUIRE entertainment to survive, as most humans do. So yes, if I were to be all of a sudden dragged and thrown in a cage, under the same conditions that these chickens live in, as a human being who has enjoyed all of these great things for 26 years, it would be terrible, and I would kill myself and others. But chickens don't go through life as humans do, even if they had all of the amenities that we as humans do, they would be too god damned stupid to know what to do with them. I just don't understand meat eaters who watch this and cry. You're letting PETA and all of the other vegans win.
You are only making excuses for our bad behavior. And this is why terrible things continue to perpetuate in the world. Maybe we could throw some babies into cages at birth and raise them like that. So that when they are old enough we can kill them and eat their meat or maybe enslave them and its totally okay because they never knew anything better. Of course animals are not human, but you have made some huge logical leaps. Are you a chicken? Do you know what they feel like? They have nerves like we do, can suffer pain like we do. Yes they cannot perceive the world around them as a human can but it doesn't mean we should take all of the animals and treat them terribly their whole lives until one day they finally reach the point of death. Why should any living creature on earth be submitted to that? Why do humans think that because we have the highest level of intellectual capacity that this means we are entitled to take advantage of the rest of the organisms on earth. And I dont just mean animals, I am also talking about our lack of concern about the environment. Our species needs to have a huge awakening because we are nothing without the earth. We are all here together, and we need to learn how to respect the earth or else we will destroy it and in that way also destroy ourselves. No I am not a raging vegan if thats what you think. I dont advocate for eating asparagus all day. Nothing is black and white. Lions eat meat why cant I? What I am advocating for is respect and moderation. Our diets should not be mostly composed of animal products. And if our society can lessen the amount of intake of animal products this will greatly help reduce the mass production of meat and terrible treatment of animals on farms. We should all make a concerted effort to eat less animal products, but when we do choose to, we should not support farms that are treating their animals as mass producible inanimate objects. So to the best of our abilities, we should be buying from local farms who tell us that they are treating their animals well.
Processing animals for human consumption is not a pretty sight, but isn't that an aesthetic point, rather than a moral one? It's a no-brainer, of course what chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs, etc. go through is inhumane. Killing any animal is inhumane. If you eat meat, you're part of this, you just have to own up to it and say "yeah, I don't mind animals being treated poorly that so I can eat them." There is no fairy tale way to sugar cote it, they are born for the sole purpose of getting slaughtered and eventually eaten. Period.
Oh God...can't even.....just awful. This makes me question their 'organic food' as well
shocking footage. brought tears to my eyes that this s**t happens daily. this needs to stop. the ceo of these companys that get found out should be forced to clean up these hell holes by hand so that they can see up close the cruelty they forced on these poor slave chickens. i live in uk we have choice of free range but even then i dont touch super market eggs. id rather get from a independent farmer. im lucky as i have friends who keep chickens and ducks. the taste is 10 times better, plus i know they are well cared for. support local farmers stop buying these mass produced eggs. you fuel the fire by keep buying this crap. the only way to stop this is to refuse to buy. i read a comment about it being basically a pointless doc. my reply is i would rather be informed of this. rather than just ignoring the facts. do you think consuming this crap that it wont affect your health. i use to be one of them consumer zombies that eat and drink the crap these companys produce. i stopped when i noticed i always felt ill, tired and never full up, always looking for the next snack. i changed my diet to a more natural balance of fresh fruit,veg,wheat,rice and NO fast food. i feel loads better. i have more energy and dont feel ill and tired. if you put dodgy fuel in a car it wont preform aswell may even damage the engine, thats the same principle with the human body. basically dont eat processed food or fast food as this is where your dodgy dead chickens end up. i cant believe after two years in that hell hole that they slaughter the chickens for meat. lol enjoy your kfc lol. im sure it tastes great hahaha!!!
most of those videos that animal rights nuts put out are doctored
Watch "Earthlings" here on SeeUat Videos pretty hard to doctor that.
It must be comforting to think so.
And what evidence do you have of that? There's really no way you can "doctor up" a mink being electrocuted up the ass for fur, or an animal chewing it's own leg off in a leghold trap, or farm animals held by one leg going down a conveyor belt to have their throats slashed, or a whole warehouse full of chickens crammed into cages or chicks being thrown into wood chippers.... this is not Hollywood, this is real documented evidence and if you aren't smart enough to tell the difference then you've just been watching too many movies.
Has there been any official response to this video that anyone knows about? It's shocking.
Always issues that develop from development! :) Industrial food production has a great many issues with it. Being a musician, I'm sure I miss several of the details that are required to advance civilization. I'm also sure that humanity can lose it's greed factor and walk
you all fail to see the propaganda in this WEGMANS is one of the last small business in USA that is doing well so the BIG BIG company's try to make them look evil IF YOU WANT FREE RANGE EGGS eggs or stuff without Monsanto or organic wegmans is waking up to this OVER AND OUT .
Wegman's is not a small business, it's a chain store and usually a box store. It's not a major multinational corporation but it's still a big business. And where is your evidence that even bigger businesses are "trying to make them look evil"? Did you document the funding for this documentary ... or is that just what you hope and wish is true?
So here's a question for the random internet horde (oh man what am I getting into?)
My parents are in their 60's, my dad almost 70. They love Wegmans. They drive over 40 minutes to go to one and eat at their buffet and sit upstairs and watch all the people below. It's like a cafe for them. They make a whole romantic day of it. They've both been really sick lately.
Part of me really wants to give them this information (they would never watch the documentary even if I asked them to) but part of me thinks perhaps I shouldn't. Sigh.
My brother and I are both vegetarian, but we are not evangelical about our vegetarianism. This puts people off and makes people resent vegetarians. I'm not out to convert anyone but I feel a strong protective instinct about my parents.
Only informed sensitive answers please.
At a certain age the roles seem to reverse, children offer protection for their parents.
If they are happy in what they are accustomed to, you may not make them feel any better if they are sick by popping their balloon, even by suggesting that wegmans are cruel to their chickens and to watch the doc, may have dire consequences in their feelings towards you. And at their age they may not feel like changing the world.
Poor chickens... they're so abused that they're docile when handled (they just don't care any more). This is, in some way, very alarming, since most chickens tend to not want to be handled and hand fed... at least not the ones who aren't handled and hand rare by humans. I doubt these caged chickens are handled at all or have contact by humans, which is why I find it strange that they're docile when they are handled. Such sweet beings should never live like that. This is why I buy free roaming chicken eggs. I am researching for local farmers markets for true caged free animals and animal products. Those are the best and one will be supporting cruelty free animal products. You'll also feed the local economy and support local farming communities. Local Farmers Markets are all win. ^_^
They are touching decayed chickens with their bare hands!
And that concerns you? These will be the same chickens that once they no longer produce good eggs will be sold as supermarket fryers and then go into your mouths.
FYI: Researchers at the University of Chicago set up a series of experiments with two rats in a shared compartment one rodent was allowed to roam free and the other was trapped in a tiny cage.
After the free rat learned how to open the cage's door and liberate its distressed companion, it did so almost immediately in each trial.
Even when freeing the caged rat offered no social reward - and even when a chocolate reward was offered as an alternative - the free rat still chose to end the trapped one's distress.
The authors of the study, published in the journal Science, claim this is the first evidence of empathy-driven behavior in rats.
"There are a lot of ideas in the literature showing that empathy is not unique to humans, and it has been well demonstrated in apes, but in rodents it was not very clear," said Jean Decety, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Chicago. "We put together in one series of experiments evidence of helping behavior based on empathy in rodents, and that's really the first time it's been seen."
Can you post this under the debate regarding Ayn Rand in the documentary "All watched over by Machines of Loving Grace". I think the people there should here it.
Why do they think that this is different than any other chicken farm? Cry me a river, honestly. I with this had more of a center on America's chicken farming as a whole, not just Wegmans. They're a business. What do you really expect? It's your fault for keeping them on such a high horse to begin with.
I would like to say that this is not how the chickens are treated on the Research Farm. They have room to run, have a huge coop, but, are still at the mercy of foxes/random animals in the area.
It's America's fault for needing things at such a fast, cheap rate. The average person doesn't care how things are made - they prefer to live in ignorance. I'm an outrageous pessimist because I really feel like things are only getting worse and our feeble attempts at "showing people the light" are being lost and not making a difference at all.
Man this ruined my day. I love my Wegmans.
Kinda feels like my cake and brownies are guilty of multiple homicide.
very brave investigation
this will be how people are treated some day....bet
What a filty way to make a buck.
I hope Wegmans chokes on it.
Infuriating. I am a vegan because of this. I ate meat, eggs, and dairy for my whole life. Those industries betrayed me and I will never support them again. In fact, I work to end them with all my energy. I only hope that karma will catch these "farmers".
I made chickens for you to capture, breed, imprison,then eat. It's in that book they wrote about me somewhere, I just can't remember where.. genesis maybe? Who reads that crap anymore anyway.
So the chicken prisons werent my mistake, but giving people like JoAnna Cannon a mouth was, so with great haste, i must apologize and resign.
-god
thank me later
You're hilarious.
LOL @ God
and to think we call ourselves civilizied. Animal cruelty in any form is wrong. Since i moved to western NY I haven't really shopped at wegmans( i don't eat or like cooked eggs I use them for baking purposes only), I think they are a little high priced. This gives me a another reason not to. Big props to lollypop farms for being involved in the production of this insightful clip. I'm lucky enough to have a neighbor who shares some of his hunting with me and it's some of the best tasting meat around( happy animals that live free tend to be free from horible conditions so they are in better health taste better), and a couple of years back i had some free range chickens the flavor was more intense( almost gamey) than any store bought chicken.
Alexandra and Jack1952- bravo - really enjoyed reading your posts. You two summed things up very nicely. Oh and tank girl. Bravo for catching on to the "Monsanto" commenter. Alexandra- you are so right in saying that people do seem to becoming less compassionate. I guess when the up and coming generation has been brought up on processed garbage, food additives(MSG,etc.), GMO's, irradiated crops and what have this is the end result- quasi humans. Deficient in thought processes, vitamins, minerals, uncaring, unintelligent and greedy. What hope does are civilization have when we are actually not evolving human kind in this country but devolving it?
4 chickens kept in a suburban back yard living off table scraps, back yard insects and chicken feed will provide 3 or 4 eggs daily. In less than 2 weeks you will be giving eggs to your neighbors. Add a small garden and it will surprise most people how much food they can grow themselves. A great percentage of people spend more time and energy on their lawns and flower beds that shows no tangible return on their investment.
Large factory farms are a danger to every one. Increases in tainted meat and ecol i in our vegetables are on the rise. Concentrated farming increases the chances of communicable diseases spreading quickly. The larger the farm the more food is in danger of being tainted. The industrialized countries have a population that likes the fact that our food is inexpensive and requires no effort. We may regret this attitude some day.
"A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast" may be religious quote but it does apply. If a person can be unnecessarily cruel to a animal then he may also demonstrate that cruelty towards another human being. No worry about them going to hell, though. They seem quite capable of creating hell on earth.
Why are we concerned about a food market that is concentrated mainly in Western NY.I happen to be from the hometown of Wegmans; Rochester. I feel this is a misleading documentary. Many people I know, know the Wegmans and they love their animals. Also they produce superior products. This has got to be BS for anyone who is familiar with Wegmans
Government is the solution? Like thats workd so far!! The real solution is small farms with less regulation. The reason we have mega farms providing us with sub standard food (less nutrition and more bacteria) is that large corps. like monsanto and tyson lobby government into more and more regulation that small farms cant afford. On a small farm (family run size) it is possible to provide cleaner and healthier food while the animal gets to live a good life with one bad day as opposed to a crappy life until its finally put out of its misery. Read "The Omnivores Dilema" and check out the Joel Salaten method of Poultry production. Chickens and cows live symbiotically, equal factory production, and have very low petroleum use for production
Do you honestly feel in your heart that when a business driven by money and profits is given less regulation they will give a crap about the chickens?
"It’s the government’s job to supervise the processing of chickens and other livestock, so that private citizens don’t have to take the time to do it."
LOL and GRINNING i'm straight up whaling over your statement....just grand...f@#$%^& grand
The thesis of this documentary seems to be that we consumers have a duty to involve ourselves in the plight of the animals which are raised as food for us. Personally, I have other things I wish to do and can't be bothered with every cause which assails me!
It's the government's job to supervise the processing of chickens and other livestock, so that private citizens don't have to take the time to do it.
To extend the logic of this documentary, maybe private citizens should be concerned over the conditions of the hot house tomato.
WOW!!!!!! What a world and the world is fine but society and the people are not. Everything is the way it is thousands or Millions of years ago. Today, people have a big problem and people who do not believe in GOD and I feel for them very deeply.
I agree with all the above who say chickens are part of the universe and deserve to live life according to the nature's of the law. Those are 100% right, and nobody would not like it if they were stuck in elevator even with the light on and filled with people.
That goes for chickens and people who do this should be ashamed of themselves. People today are so uneducated and becoming so arrogant and cruel. Mother nature knows how to deal with people and after she has enough of everyone crap.
People just do not get it and our weather system is so haywire and everything else is out of whack with nature. I suggest people should watched the following: Super size Me, Fast food Nation, and Food Inc. I feel people need to be educated and what we are putting into our bodies.
All I can say is from life experience is the following: When I was young in my childhood and grew up in the Bronx, NY and we lived. We had chickens and rooster in the back yard and we had fun and they had fun as well. We had a pool, we played canasta, and monopoly, and went to the beach, and the pool without a cell phone. We had a clothe line, and everyone had hard wood floors. We were green and we even had milk man and used olive oil.. We had fun and we all went to school and learn something of ourselves, nation, and GOD.
The most important thing was the fact that, we did not have homeless, obese, or health problem and nobody popped pill like today. Moreover, nobody had all the problems like we have today. Now that something to think about!!!!!!.
When we ate food it was very different then today poison food that we eat. When my dad came home for lunch and he would bring home ham, and french bread and tomatoes, and food was very different then today foods. Today, forget it and we are so screwed because people do not even know what they are eating today. Very sad, so before you even start to talk about the chickens and please start to look up the fake soy and the artificial sugars that they put into sodas, and all the foods, and medications. All the hormones that they add to the cows and feed the animals corn. Well that goes into your body and every notices why people are more fatter. Europe and Asia does not even do this to the animals and refuse to use lots of products as well that we use. We are very toxic nation and time we start to be non toxic thank you. Please, do some research... See my point was,
we were organic and we did not have all these issues and problems; before all this chemicals and toxic products hit our markets. Now today, we have so many problems and I wonder why...... Greed!!!!!!
One more thing, I do not care if you believe in GOD or whatever, We Do Get Our rights from GOD!!! Why because our Declaration of Independence talks about the creator and the Constitution back it up. Your belief system is fine and that what you want to believe in and that OK. Do not hurt animals of any kind and you do not like them and find a heart to help them.
Also, one of the best movies that people can rent is Temple Grandin and great movie... Whole Foods has adopted her system.... Wonderful movie.........
Just remember a divided nation is fallen nation like the Roman Empire and we ourselves are not that far away from it. So when a company treat the live stock like that and shame shame..... Eventually, we all have to pay for what we do.......
same goes for those animals' rights....we had to fight for them, nothing is "god given" other than (if you believe it) life.
i appologize in advance if i offend any of you religous type that have posted here sofar....but i have one big correction.....
GOD...did not give us any rights whatsoever....
if it were just god that had given us these rights, then what was the sufferage movement, or abolishionists, or any of the rights that PEOPLE had to FIGHT AND DIE for....
No...God does not give us rights....we give us rights, and WE take them away, nothing is a "god given right," if it were, there would be no fight for the rights that we do have.
Yea thats right... I said it! Worry about the chickens later. Lets learn how to be humane to our own speiecs first eh?
I have to say this. I worked in a chicken plant for some 6 years. Most of that time was spent in the slaughter house section of the oragization. Some 50k plus chickens died everyday while I worked at this business.
Now this was not my first choice of employment but what was a staving youth to do right? But anyways that is not my point. Without a doubt this situation played on me mentally. I could not help but to feel bad for these animals. More so after witnessing the treatment some on these aniamals recieved. But at the end of the day, the fact is, people have to eat.
So the system of enterprise we have today has invented this system of factory farming. Pleding to people to act against factory farming in order to solve this problem is nothing more then a pipe dream. Factory farming is not the root of the problem. In my opinion there is nothing more inhumane then some of the social systems we have with us still today. Fix that and all else well fall into place... is there a verse in the bible about that? lol just joking!
Could not watch the movie very disturbing and I cried. Agreed with the majority that all in favor of animals and the rights of animals.
I want to leave you with one thing. My pet pee is, that we as man must respect the animal and give the respect as we want respect. Yes it is animal but we treat the animal with kindness and dignity that we would also like to be treated ourselves. We should pray for the animals as well. Something is so wrong today, and until man can honestly respect the animal and maybe, just maybe, we would be able to respect ourselves and our fellow neighbor.
One more thing, Our rights come from GOD the creator and furthermore, we are the ones to help the animals and so we should respect them. For the person who said the Bible has great wisdom and they are absolutely correct.
If we only start to have a little compassion for ourselves and our fellow man and maybe we would find peace in this world.
Do not allow greed to come into our hearts and minds.
What a joke. I expected something wayyyyyyy worse than this, maybe some angry workers breaking chicken necks for fun or sick humor or something. Do you really think the chicken gets the same pleasure running through a field that you do? Don't impose your standards of living on livestock, it doesn't measure up. When children on food stamps depend on a high quality food like eggs at a low cost to make them affordable I chose the children over the chickens everytime.
lolwut's statement comes across to me as a propaganda statement from Monsanto, or other meat butchering farms who try to convince the modest and poor people of the world this is how we need to operate to feed mouths. I live on a farm, am a member of a locals farmer's market, I come from a family background of farmers. I can tell you that I do not know one local small farmer anymore who uses battery cages; they all use free range, or coupe/and fence ranged production methods. The main reason being, it is logic that a unhealthy enviornment creates unhealthy food, and commercial farming on that scale increases a average farmers costs to the point where one cannot make a profit, and they cannot continue to farm. Commercial farming on that scale is used to create food that is below market prices, which is paid to the farmer that produces the product (often the amount paid is well below the price it costs to produce) so in turn they can be shipped out of the United States, or sold to food companies, who process, box and sell you a morning box of dried cereal with vitamins added, since food created in this way is now void of most nutrition. You do not need to raise food in this manner to feed the planet, nor country, as science can and does support that. Most responsible farmers understand that, product in, affects the product out. If you treat your "product" with suffering conditions, whether it be a plant or animal, you get a product that creates suffering for the food chain consuming the product. Easy example is, when you remove beaks that cause bleeding or keep an animal caged in a tight enviornment they cause injury to themselves. These animals have no immune systems due to unhealthy conditions, and get infections the consumer will inevitably ingest. If in the rare case the producer wants to spend the money for a treatment, that too ends up in the mouths of the consumer. Those products as well cause harm, as science can document. Farmers in this country know that most of the food they produce ends up out of the country, as we produce a huge amount of food surplus. Farming on that commercial scale is not a necessary operation, it is, in fact, a sought after situation perpetuated by the companies of the world who want all the profits to themselves and loathe any farmer who does not jump on their bandwagon, and work for them to produce this toxic waste they call food. Farmers do not need people, who are oblivious on how to feed their own mouths, spreading campaigns for us on how "farming should be done, or is done, because this is how you do it". The fact is, the human race was feeding their own communities and families long before large monoculture farms came along. Oil, and chemicals came along, we made the consumers stupid, and lost touch of how humanity has fed it self for a long time. People don't raise their food for two main reasons these days. They don't how (ignorance), or they don't want to (laziness). Please, don't speak for farmers, just eat the food they produce for you and speak only when your speaking for yourself. I find it offensive for people with no regard or respect for ANY kind of life to even dare try to represent a farmer and tell others "how its done" for us. I would never sell any person produce that comes out of my farm that is damaged or even, had a chance of damage done to it. Why? Because when the human race destroys most of the planet, I might have to eat you. =] =} =}
lolwut i do not want to come across as abusive with this reply but i fear it might. Please acknowledge that i mean this as a means to teach not to degrade.
Agriculture is a science.. a natural one. The systems that exist in nature to provide abundance are there to be manipulated for the benefit of all species involved. Look up permaculture or read up about soil. There are ways of mass producing more than enough food for the entire world in just the United States alone. Plus using permaculture concludes each growing season with land and ecosystems that are stronger rather than weaker like modern commercial farms. Point being that this type of treatment is NOT necessary for large production of ANY agricultural product and believe it or not human physiology and general health levels are suffering for it. Remember the old addage you are what you eat.. Well i for one think this type of food is poison... intellectually, spiritually (not religiously), and metaphysically.
And no i have never dealt with chickens but i am a farmer...
"Life feeds on life.." - Tool
So treat all life with care cause you never know when your gonna have to eat it!
Johnathon R. Not only does it sound heartless, it IS heartless and pretty ignorant too.
Did you actually watch this film? How then can you doubt that these animals are suffering horribly. I really do not find chickens at all endearing, but you can see that they have spirit and deserve to be treated with respect.
These lovely people handle these poor creatures with such care, I admire them so much. I am a veggie for the last 25 years, but I think I'll go back to veganism. You can't trust manufacturers to tell the truth about how the animals are really treated. I always buy 'organic', but how can I be sure?
All and any caging should be banned, unless it's a deluxe cage with a garden.
Well, I shop at Wegmans. I'm not a big egg buyer but after seeing this will never buy another dozen eggs from them. Gotta tell you though some of these comments are daft. Agriculture is a science??? Yeah, so were the death camps in Nazi Germany. Guess that made them OK. Cruelty is cruelty and there is no excuse for it including economic profit. Anyone who views this and continues to purchase the product has some pretty questionable ideals. If the sh** hits the fan in this nation from our massive debt load, I hope none of you are my neighbors. Be afraid I'd end up as your meal one hungry evening. As for me, I'll vote with my dollars.
Yeah, this is basically a standard chicken farm. If you don't like it, DON'T BUY THE EGGS OR CHICKEN from this company or others like it! Its that simple.
Those chickens are agricultural products, they are not pets. The bleeding hearts in this video and on this comment board sound like a bunch of city dwellers who have never seen a modern farm operation up close... Some of the conditions seemed a bit dreary to say the least, but this is the reality of modern mass-market agriculture. Like it or not, granny tossing handfuls of corn to the free-range hens is NOT how you feed a nation of 300 million, let alone a planet of 7 billion.
Even small-time family farmers interested in modest poultry output use facilities that are at least somewhat similar to this. The picture you have in your heads of granny feeding chickens in the barnyard is for family hens, sure, or maybe enough to sell a few dozen eggs to your neighbors, but if you are a farmer interested in starting even a modest operation with the intent of selling on the general market, this is how it gets done.
This is the 21st century. Agriculture is a science. Maximize product output while minimizing resource input. Keep in mind that if you want to provide all those chickens with more square footage per bird, fresh air and daylight, or other amenities, YOU (and all other consumers) will pay for it, not the businesses.
Aww but I like quoting extracts from Tolkien :(
This is the same as any chicken farm. Find better things to do.
Repent Repent Repent! :-)
@JoAnna: I tell god I hate him and will forever work against his institutions every night before I go to bed, just to make sure he doesn't exist.
Our Lady JC!
Hark!!!
With their whips of flame they smote asunder the webs of Ungoliant, and she quailed, and turned to fight, belching black vapours to cover her; and fleeing from the north she went down into Beleriand, and dwelt beneath Ered Gorgoroth, in that dark valley that was after called Nan Dungortheb, the Valley of Dreadful Death, becuase of the horror she bred there. For other foul creatures of spider form had dwelt there since the days of the delving of Angband, and she mated with them, and devoured them; and even after Ungoliant herself departed, and went whither she would into the forgotten south of the world, her offspring abode there and wove their hideous webs. Of the fate of Ungoliant, no tale tells. Yet some have said that she ended long ago, when in her uttermost famine she devoured herself at last.
Or did she?
Alright, so, first of all. Jonathan R, yes, they're just chickens, like in the grand scheme of things, we are just humans. I'd like for you to take a moment and consider a species out there with a higher form of intellect than humans, who might come along and cage humans for mass reproduction and consumption. Placing us in cages where we live in our own waste, and have to be maimed to keep us from killing one another. Just because we are unable to compare the intellect of an animal to our own, does not mean that it is right for us to make them suffer needlessly, does it? And it most certainly does not mean it does not exist. I'm having a very hard time being diplomatic about this, because of the nature of your comment, but I wonder why you made it, and where your basis is for it? Have you interacted much with chickens before that you can be this sure of yourself? Can you honestly tell me that you watched this documentary without cringing at the conditions these birds live in? I would very seriously like to know.
And I'm not sitting here with my head in the clouds, convinced that any one thing can exist without it being at the expense of another thing. I have no delusions that things have died for me to live. But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't live without regard to the things that have died for my survival.
As for Joanna. I'm just going to throw diplomacy out the window here, because I pretty much already know that there isn't anything I can say to convince you out of the safe haven of intellectual neglect you have encompassed yourself in.
But... how is any of what you said even relevant?
Seriously:
“A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel”.
And
"The wicked(remember the ones who are cruel to animals (which are those who show tender mercies, right?)) shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God"
What are you even trying to say? Do you even understand what you are saying? Because when I break that down, what I gather from it is that the righteous man has no tender mercies towards the lives of others, and that it is the people who are compassionate are going to Hell, because being compassionate is really being cruel. And being relentless and unmerciful is pious. Right?
Are you saying that it's more cruel to make friends with your food and take care of it before killing it than it is to throw it in a cage the size of a filing cabinet with nine other birds in their own feces?
Do you believe that God placed everything here strictly for you (his follower(s))and that you can just do what you want to it because you believe in God?
I must agree with many others in this. Keep religion out of places where it is not relevant. The fact is that you simply cannot and should not apply religion to every aspect of your life because it takes from who you are as a person and replaces it with an old book written by humans many many many centuries ago. When you come onto a forum, and I read your post, I feel like now I can watch any documentary and when I want Joanna's opinion I can just go to the bible instead, because who needs a person who is only as useful as a book? I'll just go get myself a bible instead and find the appropriate quote when I want to know what YOU think. Because it is obvious that you do not think outside of your book. Period. You are nothing more than a walking, talking, typing bible and that essentially makes you as useless as words on a piece of thin paper, and anything you have to say irrational or completely not relevant.
But to seriously get back to the documentary itself. In my ability to empathize and move in and outside of myself as a human or as my own human, I found myself thinking about how wonderful it must have been for those few chickens who were rescued to be removed from the chaos and handled so gently. It really must have been incredible on their senses (whether they could process those senses the same way we can or not) to have been suddenly treated with such tenderness.
Again, it is really irrelevant whether these chickens are as intelligent as us, or as refined intellectually as us because they still do all the same basic things humans do: Eat, sleep, drink, crap and copulate. Granted these are all things that humans have added some level of shame/embarrassment or original sin to. When we really look at ourselves in the mirror, we're not much different on that core level.
If things had worked out different on that evolutionary scale, it might be humans in those cages.
If things work out differently in terms of reincarnation, that might be what some of us have to look forward to.
Bahahahaha.
What's this documentary about again?
I haven't even watched it yet and I'm already on a bit of an edge waiting for some bible thumper to come running out of the wood work with a cross flicking holy water at me for having a logical opinion on it that hasn't been pulled from some old book.
Alchems, if you're not next, I will be...
What a riot!!
Never laughed so hard in all my life!
You better heed Jo C. Yavanna or you are doomed, doomed! repent, repent!! I say onto you.
Don't say fricken, whatever you do!!
All I can say, am glad she did not lay anything on me!!
Or maybe I'm next. :(
Yavanna:
"F" me???? It smells like you pooped at the dinner table! Who is the unpolite one? It appears that you don't like freedom either, hence your controlling nature.
Yavanna, I know you don't like scriptures but I simply must warn you. The Bible says that "the wicked mans mouth is full of cursing". It also teaches that we will stand before God on the Day of Judgement & we will have to give an account for every word that we have ever spoken.
Sincerely Yavanna, before it is too late, repent of your wickedness & turn to God. It is a VERY dangerous thing to call God's Word "fricken".
I know you don't want to hear this, but unless you repent of your sins you will spend eternity in hell.
Ask yourself, why do I hate Jesus? Why do I hate His Word? I pray you repent before it is too late.
Jo
Discuss the doc. Don't quote bits of your book unless you want me to start pasting sections of Lord of The Rings here.
THIS isn't ArMerryKAAaa. You are in mixed company on the world wide web and it's polite not to fart at the dinner table.
Would be nice for at least one discussion didn't devolve into frickin scripture for a change.
Can't believe it!!
Everywhere you go, Religee's are there, even on a Doc. about chickens
for Ch****sakes.
Do you read scriptures while your on the can also?
@Erik - you just made my day. Almost never laugh out lout when in front of my PC, but I just did.
@Joanna - Oooh, bring in the communists. The Americans aren't over the Red Scare, as I see. Funny and pathetic at the same time. Almost as much as your scripture-quoting.
As for me, I'll quote my own thoughts instead of some book:
4:29 - personal thoughts
"If we are cruel to animals, we show that we are in essence on a lower level of intelligence than they are. An intelligent, developed being should be smart enough to decide not to inflict something on others that he doesn't want to endure himself. But then again, the human race shows it's true face ever more often. In the end, we will end as a failed sidekick of evolution, a design that didn't work out and destroyed itself within the blink of an eye."
You shouldn't hate on someone just because they are religious. The bible has alot of wisdom in it. You just have to cherry pick...
Achems Razor:
In America where I'm blessed to call home, we have two precious gifts called: "the freedom of religion" & "the freedom of speech".
If you have a problem with either of these God given rights, then I suggest that YOU "Go Away" OR don't be a hypocrite & surrender yourself to a communist nation to do with you as they please!
JoAnna Cannon................ FU
A sad doc indeed. Seeing the difference betwewen a battery hen and one running round having fun in a garden brought it home for me.
JoAnna Cannon:
Go away.
Go spout your religious scriptures on a religious Website.
The Holy Bible, as always, sums it up most perfectly in Proverbs 12:10,
"A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel".
"The wicked(remember the ones who are cruel to animals) shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God". Ps 9:17.
Repent, all you wicked cruel animal abusers before you are cast into hell for eternity!
All poultry species are Sentient Vertebrates and have similar feelings as mammals, they can feel pain, fear and stress.
They even have personalities. Chickens posses underestimated cognitive complexity.
In fact everything is made up of consciousness, the whole Universe, is conscious in its own way.
I agree with jgh:
Chickens are a sentient life form, they are conscious, as all animals are. Albeit not like humans. But they can feel pain.
you're an idiot who is too soft to practice what you preach.
can i lock you in an elevator full of people in the dark for just half an hour? probably not. you'd be whining for a month about how horrible that half hour was.
chickens love the early morning sun and when my granny used to call them to feed them they would come running when they heard her voice.
no human, animal, bird or mammal likes being in the darkness 24 hours a day in a small space where they can't move. it doesn't take rocket science to figure that out.
This is going to sound really heartless but come on they are chickens.
This is kind of sad story but they are animals. Is there any reason to even believe that these animals are sentient or even conscious of their own existence?