Sunday 13 October 2013

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #10 Buy Only Free-range Eggs

1000 Flowers for the Planet - #10 Buy Only Free-range Eggs

By guest blogger, my daughter.

Most eggs you can buy in the supermarket are from battery farms. In these hellish environments, chickens live five to a cage, leaving them barely enough room to turn around, let alone spread their wings or walk around. The bottoms of the cages are sloped, so their legs are constantly straining. Their beaks are cut with a searing hot blade when they are chicks so they become blunt. The lighting is turned on and off at strange times to induce excessive, unhealthy laying. They live to be only 21 months old (instead of a natural 12 years), but if they cease to lay they are pulled from the cage and dumped in the immense pile of excrement piled beneath the cage and left there to die - they cannot escape because they cannot walk. I know all of this to be true because I've seen it with my own eyes. Barn laid are barely any better, don't be fooled. They are not 'free to roam' as claimed. There is a small hole in the shed where they could go out into some dirt if they wished, but they do not. They live in their own faeces and have pretty much the same space as a battery hen.

So buy free range eggs! Free range chickens ARE permitted to roam in grass fields where they can do all sorts of natural chooky things. Their eggs benefit from this because they are able to consume a much more natural diet and be infinitely more healthy. The eggs are much larger, and they have an amazing taste. They are vibrant in colour and add an actual flavour to meals. Everything about them looks and tastes better. And I am positive the nutritional benefits are increased, too.
 
The Australian Capital Territory has BANNED all battery farming and de-beaking of chickens. It is now illegal. Britain has also banned the practice. These are amazing steps forward for the future, and if more people protest the inhumane, cruel and downright disgusting practices of battery and barn farming for eggs, we can make free range farming the way of the future. The power is in your hands!

Check out this website to read more about this and other animal cruelty issues; http://www.makeitpossible.com/facts/what-is-factory-farming.php

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