As women, we know how bad it feels to be dominated by men who abuse their power. We must learn from this and not abuse our power over animals. Other women and men who work in slaughterhouses must slit throats and bash in skulls all day long so we can eat meat without doing the dirty killing work. Women must also remember that it's mostly female flesh we consume, the bodies of billions of helpless hens.
Karen Davis, a professor at the University of Maryland, chose a career teaching English. Little did she know a crippled hen would change her life.
In 1985, Davis discovered a henhouse on her landlord's property. Unfamiliar with chickens, she visited them, curious about their ultimate fate. Most could barely walk, painfully hobbling over to greet her. Bred for meat, they were cruelly altered genetically; their bones and joints couldn't support their heavy bodies.
One day, the henhouse was deserted except for one little hen left behind. Davis tenderly picked her up, took her home and named her Viva. Even with loving care, Viva's health worsened due to birth defects typical of birds bred for us to eat. Viva had painstakingly taught herself to creep forward using her wing tips but soon couldn't even take a few steps. "On a cold November day, I took her to the veterinarian and had her euthanized," said Davis. "This soft little hen showed me my future, not only because she had suffered but because she was a valuable being, somebody worth fighting for."
Davis founded United Poultry Concerns to end the suffering of domestic fowl by exposing the poultry industry's cruelty and promoting a vegan diet. Providing lifelong sanctuary and veterinary care, Davis also finds homes for many of these tortured birds. "They're like abused children," she said, comforting a newly rescued hen.
Debeaking, suffocating rooster chicks and starving hens to regulate egg production are just some of the horrors documented in UPC's newsletter Poultry Press., whose readers fight cruelty by contacting targeted officials. Even many "free range" chickens may live horrible lives. No uniform "free range" standards exist. They and their caged sisters are both hung from conveyor belts on their way to the blade and are often still alive and fully conscious when dragged through scanding water to remove their feathers.
The argument that a group of individuals is "all alike" has been used throughout human history to justify oppressing them. "Chickens, whether intelligent or stupid, individual or identical, are sensitive beings. They feel pleasure and pain and experience fear and well-being. This is enough to make it wrong to cause them pain and suffering," said Davis.
Lack of compassion is the linchpin sustaining our violent culture which accommodates animal cruelty-and racism, sexism, child abuse and genocide. A vegan diet is based on compassion and Davis' cookbook, "A Poultryless 'Poultry' Potpourri," proves going vegan doesn't mean doing without hearty, mouth-watering meals!
Beside spiritual benefits, vegan fare is healthy-for us, our communities, and the Earth. "I've had birds with yellow pus oozing from their insides and was told to save the wings and breast meat," said USDA Inspector Ronnie Sarratt. Chicken and eggs from factory farms often contain dioxin from contaminated feed, according to the Environmntal Research Foundation.
Regarding communities, corporate factory farms turn them into fly-infested breeding grounds of disease. Over 7.5 billion birds are killed annually in the U.S. polluting air, water and land with carcasses, feces, heavy metals, chemicals, bacteria, parasites and viruses. Wells were poisoned in Maryland, Delaware and Arkansas. Pollution in Chesapeake Bay increased pfiesteria bacteria, killing thousands of fish and causing brain damage in humans. On a global scale, going vegan diverts money from huge corporate ranches that destroy habitat-from rainforests to Oregon's trout streams. "Whenever I think of Viva, I picture the millions of Vivas slaughtered every day , their baby cheeps full of fear as they're grabbed and hooked upside down in the slaughterhouse in the final moments of their bleak lives. At these times, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for UPC's members," said Davis.
Help spread peace and compassion by joining United Poultry Concerns P.O. Box 150 Machipongo, VA 23405-0150. Ph. 757-678-7875 www.upc-online.org