From the UK Telegraph:
Hens are as happy in battery farmsThat soft popping sound is PETA member's heads exploding. The problem with a lot of groups like PETA is that they anthropomorphise animal behavior and say that if I find this intolerable, so must the animal and therefore it must be stopped. There are obvious cases of animal mistreatment -- unsanitary conditions, gross overcrowding et. al. but what most 'activists' fail to realize is that if a farmer mistreats their stock, they will not make as much money. It is in the farmer's own best financial interest to see that their stock (and their crops) are grown under optimal conditions, a good sized population but not overcrowded (most stock are highly social and really need companions) and decent air, light and water. We lost almost all of our free-range chickens and all of our ducks this spring to a couple of coyotes. Our two hens and one rooster that live in the goat and sheep barn survived because they had a coyote-proof fence to duck behind. (We keep a small flock in the barn because they do an excellent job cleaning up any parasites and bugs -- beats having to spray every month or so...)
Contentedly pecking seed in the open countryside, free-range hens have carefree lives that their counterparts in battery farms can only dream about, or so it has long been believed.
In fact, caged hens are no more stressed than those that roam free, researchers have discovered.
Scientists measured corticosterone, a hormone produced in response to stress or fear, in eggs from free-range and caged hens. They found that the levels in both were very similar.
Free-range hens suffer stresses that battery hens do not have to deal with, according to Jeff Downing, who led the research at Sydney University. "If they have no cover they are constantly in fear of attack by predators," he explained. "You can see it. A shadow comes over and they are completely startled."
Mr Downing added that free-range hens are prone to manure-borne diseases and parasites, that extreme temperatures are more stressful to hens than the method of their housing, and that caged hens have greater protection from both the elements and predators.
this is a classic example of a study missing the point. The idea that chickens cooped up in little cages, standing in thier own filth, inside of sheds so dusty people have to wear filters to breath is good for the animals involved is silly. Sure birds out of doors spook when a shadow appears overhead, might pick up a parasite or two. this happens in crowded captivity too. The birds need shelter and protection, but they also need to be treated like the living animals they are. The birds have millions of years of adaptations for living outdoors much of the time. Nature dos'nt cram them into cages, or barns all of the time.
Visit a Tyson rearing barn sometime, and tell me honestly if that is the way chickens are supposed to live. We put people in jail for housing dogs and cats this way.
this is a classic example of a study missing the point. The idea that chickens cooped up in little cages, standing in thier own filth, inside of sheds so dusty people have to wear filters to breath is good for the animals involved is silly. Sure birds out of doors spook when a shadow appears overhead, might pick up a parasite or two. this happens in crowded captivity too. The birds need shelter and protection, but they also need to be treated like the living animals they are. The birds have millions of years of adaptations for living outdoors much of the time. Nature dos'nt cram them into cages, or barns all of the time.
Visit a Tyson rearing barn sometime, and tell me honestly if that is the way chickens are supposed to live. We put people in jail for housing dogs and cats this way.