OPENING OUR EYES - TO CHICKENS

“Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.”
 
                                                                    ~  Rev. Dr. Albert Schweitzer  

            I was going to post today Part Two of my discussion of the minority voice within the Christian tradition that has always recognized our obligations to our fellow creatures.  An article in the Washington Post this week, however, made me change my plans because I think it demands that we stop and pay attention.  This is what we, as people of faith, need to open our eyes to, to open our mouths about, and to open our hearts for.

            On October 29, the Washington Post published this article, titled USDA Plan To Speed Up Poultry-Processing LinesCould Increase Risk Of Bird Abuse.  Here is the opening sentence:

Nearly 1 million chickens and turkeys are unintentionally boiled alive each year in U.S. slaughterhouses, often because fast-moving lines fail to kill the birds before they are dropped into scalding water, Agriculture Department records show.

This is under the current system, which allows slaughter lines to move so fast that 140 chickens or 45 turkeys can be slaughtered in one minute.  The new regulations will allow 175 chickens or 55 turkeys per minute to speed to their deaths.  I encourage you to read the entire article.  While it is not graphic, it does detail the process by which chickens and turkeys are slaughtered, the problems that come with the astonishing speed with which the birds are killed, and the potential additional problems with the new regulations.  It also points out that poultry, by far the largest percentage of animals slaughtered for food in this country, are not protected by the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. 

            This is not a fun read, but it is an important one.  As people of faith, we do not have the luxury of closing our eyes to the suffering we support with our purchasing decisions.   As people created in the image of God, we are called to reflect God’s image to all of creation.  R. C. Sproul has said, “When we sin as the image bearers of God, we are saying to the whole creation, to all of nature under our dominion, to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field: ‘This is how God is. This is how your Creator behaves. Look in the mirror; look at us, and you will see the character of God Almighty.’”  We might add that this is what we are saying to the birds of the poultry production plant, as well. 

           
The article points out that the number of birds currently boiled alive is less than one percent of total birds slaughtered, about which a number of observations can be made.  First, Americans kill and eat a lot of chickens.  Second, nearly a million birds boiled alive is nearly a million birds too many; the percentage is not point.  Just as God cares for each of us individually, so we are to care about each one of those birds.  Third, while being boiled alive is what happens when things don’t go as planned, it happens because frightened birds are struggling to escape as they are pinned upside down by their legs and sent speeding through the slaughter line.  Even when the process works, it is a terrifying way to die.  

After you’ve read the article from the Washington Post, read this one from the New York Times, discussing a study showing the intelligence of these very same chickens.  Here’s a note from that article:

For starters, hens can count — at least to six. They can be taught that food is in the sixth hole from the left and they will go straight to it. Even chicks can do basic arithmetic, so that if you shuffle five items in a shell game, they mentally keep track of additions and subtractions and choose the area with the higher number of items. In a number of such tests, chicks do better than toddlers.

These are the creatures nearly one million of whom are boiled alive every year. 
            It must also be mentioned that this awful, inexact slaughter process is only the last step in a miserable existence for most birds, who have endured their short lives in the squalor and crowded conditions of a factory farm.  Nor do other animals raised for food fare any better.

Contrary to popular assumption, we have not always eaten the way we eat now.  The modern diet is possible only as a result of the development since World War II of factory farms, also known as “Confined Animal Feeding Operations” or “CAFOs” (which are designed to house the highest number of animals in the smallest space with the least possible expense, thereby reducing production costs and maximizing profits) working in conjunction with high speed slaughterhouses.   As a result of the rise of factory farms, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, in 2011, 9.1 billion farm animals were slaughtered in the United States alone for human consumption (of which nearly 8.7 billion were chickens).[1]  That was 289 animals per second, 17,313 animals per minute, 1,038,812 animals per hour, or 24,831,546 animals every day for 365 days.  Yet, this number was down slightly from 2010, when 9.2 billion farm animals were killed.  In comparison to the 1.8 billion slaughtered in 1960 (itself a fairly daunting figure), however, it remains a staggering increase, reflecting a per person increase in annual meat consumption from 184.75 pounds in 1960 to 298.05 pounds per person in 2011.[2]  While factory farming keeps the cost of meat at the supermarket low, its real costs, including in damage to the environment, risks to personal and public health, poor working conditions, threats to the existence of family farms, and overwhelming animal suffering, are actively hidden from view.[3]  

There are a host of resources to learn about factory farming.  The Humane Society ofthe United States, Farms Sanctuary, and the Animal Welfare Institute are just a few.  I urge you to learn about this issue, to learn about alternatives, and to learn about how you can be a voice for these creatures.  I urge you to learn how to reflect God’s love even to animals raised for food.  And, while you are thinking about the chickens and turkeys described in the Post article, think about sponsoring a turkey at Farm Sanctuary for Thanksgiving instead of eating one. 

As Matthew Scully said,

I don't answer to inevitabilities, and neither do you. I don't answer to the economy. I don't answer to tradition and I don't answer to Everyone.  For me, it comes down to a question of whether I am a man or just a consumer. Whether to reason or just to rationalize. Whether to heed my conscience or my every craving, to assert my free will or just my will. Whether to side with the powerful and comfortable or with the weak, afflicted, and forgotten.  Whether, as an economic actor in a free market, I answer to the God of money or the God of mercy.[4]

As Christians, we must take stock of the impact of our daily decisions.  We must ask ourselves which God we answer to.  

 

Photo credit:  My Pet Chicken

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[1] Humane Society of the United States, Farm Animal Statistics, Slaughter Totals, based on USDA statistics, http://www.humanesociety.org/news/resources/research/stats_slaughter_totals.html (accessed January 13, 2013).

[2] Humane Society of the United States, US Per Capita Meat Consumption, based on USDA statistics, http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs/farm/table_us_per_capita_meat.pdf (accessed January 13, 2013).  Even the 1960 figure is a significant increase from 1950, when per capita consumption was 145.88 pounds.  Id.

[3] Almost all meat consumed in the United States – and increasingly around the world – is the product of factory farming.  

[4] Scully, Matthew. Dominion: The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals, and The Call to Mercy. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 2002, p. 325.