Meet Charlie.
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| Credits: Mike |
Charlie is a
male chick, who just recently hatched from his safe haven.
He was born
into an industrial farm system.
Once Charlie
poked open his egg shell, he peeked into the world hopeful for the promise of
life. He met his first promising friend, gloved hand attached to a human body. Though
Charlie was expecting to see his caretaker, he got more than he bargained for.
He realized that the light at the end of this tunnel would lead him to
something other than utopia.
The gloved
hand swooped up Charlie and a few of his brothers from their nest, squeezed
them slightly together and swung then around onto moving ground- a conveyer
belt. Along side these siblings were millions of other look-a-likes.
The ground propelled
these chick-lings into a place where chirping is no longer heard from afar. As the
ground below, moved them closer to a silencing ground, these chicks began to
ask aloud various questions in a chaotic fashion …
“What is going
on?”
“Where are we
headed?”
“Where is my
mother?”
“Why me?”
at the end of
this fast paced journey Charlie would soon come to his end.
After only
minutes of life, he would fall head first into a grinder along side millions of
others like him. In farming industries, the cruel reality is that this story applies
to practically every male chick.
Poultry farms
that raised chickens solely for their meat are called “broilers”. In these
broilers, many myths have been fed to the public other than its chicken. First,
the chicken being raised here is being feed chemically modified feed. This feed
is enhanced with growth hormones and antibiotics so that the chickens grow at a
much faster pace and can be killed and sold efficiently.
 |
| Credits : Helen Horton |
Additionally, these
broilers are where the public is told their chicken are, “free-range”, “organic
fed”, “cage free”. Though these could all be considered true labels the
conditions in which they live do not satisfy our imagination of a healthy
chicken farm. The USDA does not regulate any of these three labels and
underegulate at most organic foods. In most cases the cages, or living quarters of these animals are filled with death and
Ammonia,
one of the leading disease found amongst these broilers, cause a chicken’s
skin, eyes, and lungs to burn. When chickens get sick they can be clubbed on
the head with metal rods, electrocuted or left for dead in the cages for others
to step on the lifeless bodies.
There
is a disconnect between the food on our plate and the living creature. Some do
not wish to recognize for their own selfish purposes that at some point in time
this was a baby ripped away from its mother, forced to each foods not suitable
for its diet, and slaughtered for commercial use.
Americans are the largest consumers of chicken based products in the world. In 2015, 90 lbs per capita were consumed.
If we want to see change for these animals we must change our habits.
Very recommend films that elaborate further on this subject are as follow:
- Vegucated
- Cowspiracy
- Concentration Camps
- Food Inc.
Watch them at your on discretion. Nonetheless, being exposed to the situation at hand in the most informed way is what will set your decisions in motion. Let chicks like Charlie live the 10 years their lives allow them... not 10 minutes.
The title drew me in. I had no idea what to expect from this post at first glance. You did a great job to hook the reader and then dispense your information on industrial farming (not the most glamorous topic) once you had the reader's attention. I also particularly liked the line about these farms feeding many myths to the public other than its chicken.
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