A Yogi With A Cause: The Sky is Falling...

Who likes Chicken Parmesan or Chicken Noodle Soup? These are dishes that we grew up on. That we were conditioned to like and feel warm and comforted when we eat them. Advertisements even use cute little pictures of chickens or chicks to make you feel better about eating them. It takes our minds off of what really happens to these chickens and how they get from being hatched to being in our pasta dish. The truth is hidden from us for generations. I grew up eating chicken because that is just what we did. (everybody's doin it right?). One day I heard what actually happened to the chickens, then I investigated some more and realized that I didn't want to be a part of this and couldn't nor wanted to eat chicken meat again.

Here is what the true cost of a chicken nugget is:

An adorable little chick is hatched, unfortunately it is born in a factory farm instead of on a farm with a nice meadow and a pond. It is born in a dark, dirty, over crowded factory. Instead of nestling up to it's mother, the first thing that happens to this baby chick is getting it's beak cut off with no anesthesia. This prevents the chickens from pecking each other and the factory workers. It is fed grains loaded with growth hormones and antibiotics. It is fed antibiotics to steer off any diseases that may come due to the unliveable conditions that they are kept in. They are given growth hormones so that the chick will grow from being a baby to a chicken ready to be slaughtered in just six weeks! That is more than twice as fast as they grow in the wild. Due to the very fast growth rate, many chickens can not hold up their own bodies and die well before the six weeks. They grow so quickly that their hearts and lungs are not fully developed and can not support their bodies. Many crippled birds will lay in their own excrement until they are slaughtered or die on their own (can we say SALMONELLA). The chickens live in an unsanitary factory with thousands of other chickens. They have less than a half of a square foot (about the size of a piece of notebook paper) to move around in. We all know that chickens like to roam and peck. They can do neither here. Their whole short lives are spent in a dark, dirty, unsanitary, tiny, stress full, torture filled room.

Then when the chicken has met the weight needed to sell it to companies, the chicken is slaughtered. Chickens are transported to the slaughterhouse in crates stacked in an open air truck. They travel crammed in with other chickens through the rain, snow, heat, etc. Once they get to the slaughterhouse, they are taken from the crates to a conveyor belt. I am really making this seem organized and nicer than it is, where in actuality it is not. Lots of chickens die en route, others are dropped, crushed under machines, left to starve on the floor of the slaughter house. They are strung up by their feet, still conscious. Then they are dunked into an electrical bath to stun them and make the killing easier. However, some slaughterhouses think that if the chicken is too unconscious, the meat tends to be ruined, so they only stun a little bit making the chicken capable of feeling pain. From there, their necks are slashed, their feathers are boiled off and the meat is processed.

It is a sad life for a chicken born in a factory farm. It is hard to believe that because we have become accustomed to chicken nuggets and fried chicken that these animals have to suffer this way. These animals feel pain, they have brains, hearts, nervous systems and pain receptors. They are living beings and it is not right. It is easy to eat them when this information is hidden, which is why the truth must be told. We can save the baby chicks and we can save ourselves. No one wants to create unnecessary harm to other beings. The best way to save these animals is to STOP EATING THEM. Every time you support KFC or TYSON, etc, you are voting for these baby chicks to grow up in the factory farm life.

Nearly 10 Billion chickens are dying annually! Do your part to save the chickens.