AP: Moark facing animal cruelty charges for dumping live chickens

[shockra]

Posted on Fri, Jul. 29, 2005

Abuse charges filed against Moark egg company

Associated Press

NEOSHO, Mo. - Misdemeanor animal abuse charges have been filed against a southwest Missouri egg producer after a man videotaped live chickens being dumped from a conveyer into a trash bin.

Newton County Prosecutor Scott Watson also filed misdemeanor animal abuse charges Friday against Dan Hudgens, Moark's Midwest regional manager, and subcontractors William Sharp and Robert Beck.

The charges stem from a video that authorities said showed Moark contractors dumping live chickens from a conveyer belt into a trash container, smothering them. Before the video was given to law enforcement authorities, it had been shown at the Newton County Fair and posted on the Internet. Among those viewing the video at the fair was Rep. Kevin Wilson, R-Neosho, who asked Moark for an explanation.

Hudgens has said the birds were aged chickens that were to be taken to a rendering plant. The chickens were supposed to be loaded into a 55-gallon drum that was pumped full of carbon dioxide, which was to kill the chickens before they were taken to the rendering plant.

more...

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/12258425.htm

[leetrisck]

1. so many "chicken problems" in this part of the country

and we now have "droves" of Laotians coming to these parts and buying existing houses or building new ones. Also paying above normal prices - rumors abound as to why but nobody seems to know why and can't find out. Question is - why Laotians and why chicken houses?

[leetrisck]

2. Does anyone know

why? Any responses???

[shockra]

3. Sounds like a cultural thing.

Mr. Lee gathered his family in the living room and broke the news. He was considering moving them across the country to the rural South. The plan: Raise chickens.

Mr. Lee was joining a large migration, already well under way, of fellow Hmong-American families to poultry farms in the region where Oklahoma meets Missouri and Arkansas. This is the latest chapter in the migratory history of a people believed to have moved from Siberia into China as far back as 2000 B.C. Many Hmong left China in the 19th century to escape persecution and fled to Laos, North Vietnam and Thailand.

After the Vietnam War, about 150,000 Hmong fled Laos, many for the U.S. Hmong communities sprang up in Wisconsin, in Minnesota and on the West Coast.

During the past three years, Hmong-Americans have been leaving these areas in increasing numbers, prodded by economic forces and lured by a rural life and region that closely resemble what they left behind in Laos. As the number of Hmong living in the rural South grows, so, too, does the draw.

http://lists.iatp.org/listarchive/archive.cfm?id=88266

[leetrisck]

8. Thanks for the link - a lot of this I know

but the economy here is not very good, you do not clear that much per house on the chickens, etc. I have a problem with more and more and more chicken houses - everywhere - and more coming all the time. That's the part that doesn't make sense - just not enough money in this for the kind of outlay one has to make for these houses and the constant demands by the companies to upgrade (always money). I'm hoping that as more and more come that they will run cattle, etc and stay away from the chicken houses.

[shockra]

4. But it's still okay to dump baby chicks.

For every egg-laying hen confined in a battery cage, there is a male chick who was killed at the hatchery. Because egg-laying chicken breeds have been genetically selected exclusively for maximum egg production, they don't grow fast or large enough to be raised profitably for meat. Therefore, male chicks of egg-laying breeds are of no economic value, and they are literally discarded on the day they hatch — usually by the cheapest, most convenient means available. Thrown into trash cans by the thousands, male chicks suffocate or are crushed under the weight of others.

Another common method of disposing of unwanted male chicks is grinding them up alive. This can result in unspeakable horrors, as described by one research scientist who observed that "even after twenty seconds, there were only partly damaged animals with whole skulls". In other words, fully conscious chicks were partially ground up and left to slowly and agonizingly die. Eyewitness accounts at commercial hatcheries indicate similar horrors of chicks being slowly dismembered by machinery blades en route to trash bins or manure spreaders.

http://www.factoryfarming.com/eggs.htm

The chicken’s misery begins at birth, when he or she is among thousands of chicks hatched in an industrial incubator. At this point, agribusiness doesn’t even call them “chickens.” Instead, these birds are identified by their food value: “broilers” are chickens bred for meat, and “layers” are hens destined to produce eggs. Workers in the egg industry quickly separate the male and female chicks, literally throwing out the males. Because “egg-type” male chickens can’t lay eggs and are too small for the broiler chicken industry, they are either gassed, tossed into a machine that grinds them up while fully conscious, or flung into garbage bags to eventually suffocate. U.S. hatcheries killed more than 272 million male chicks in 2002.

http://www.satyamag.com/mar05/hawthorne.html

Perhaps the finest illustration of what factory farming does to chickens has been presented by artist/writer Sue Coe. After her visit to a hatchery with Lorri Bauston from Farm Sanctuary, the activist organization focused on rescuing farm animals, Coe wrote about what they found:

“Around the back is a large dumpster. Lorri and I climb up to look inside. She is looking for live baby chicks. The male baby chicks are discarded as soon as they are hatched. They have no use, no value, since they cannot lay eggs. And it would cost too much to euthanize them. So they are tossed into the dumpster alive. But it is too late for us to rescue any chicks—the sun is just too hot. On the top layer of corpses, flies are eating the chicks’ eyes. Lorri keeps digging under the corpses. There are layers upon layers, some chicks still half in the shells, having broken through with their beaks. I examine a chick, so perfect with its soft yellow down and tiny wings. The chicks are thrown in with other garbage: empty Coke cans, cigarette packs, computer printouts, samples of our throwaway society. Gene Bauston, cofounder of Farm Sanctuary, told me that sometimes the baby chicks are ground up alive and thrown on the fields as fertilizer. Walking along a plowed field, you can sometimes find a chick, still alive, with no legs or wings.”

http://www.mickeyz.net/news/mickeyz/our_fine_feathered_friends/

[expatriot]

22. I'm sure you've seen Peaceable Kingdom.

My wife and I are HUGE fans and supporters of Farm Sanctuary. We really want to visit one of the farms in a real bad way but being able to make it to northern california or upstate new york is just not feasible... needless to say we were thrilled when we heard that Lori is planning a third location around LA... this would only be like 5-6 hours for us so we are excited.

[shockra]

26. I haven't seen Peaceable Kingdom.

I'd really like to see that. Now I remember somebody mentioning it before and giving this link.

http://www.tribeofheart.org/

[smbolisnch]

5. A MISDEMEANOR??

:wtf:

[dusty64]

12. My thoughts exactly.

Just another sad example of the corporate throwaway society we live in today. Factory farms are the absolute worst of the worst, a slap on the wrist and they will continue these disgusting and horrific practices. They just will be more careful next time.

[smbolisnch]

13. "They just will be more careful next time"

You are exactly right dusty. So sad. :cry:

[flvegan]

6. No surprise here.

I don't believe chickens are even covered by the Animal Welfare Act.

[smbolisnch]

7. But they most definitely ARE animals.

:mad:

[shockra]

9. Maybe not.

You can eat chicken and still be a vegetarian.

Or so I've heard. :eyes:

[smbolisnch]

11. LOL, you musta heard that on the internets!

:rofl:

[expatriot]

16. WTF? you're joking right?

first of all that you can still be vegetarian if you eat chicken and
secondly...
that you can define what is and what isn't an animal by someone else's definition of vegetarian.

[Lisa]

14. and they definitely are not meat/egg machines ...

I do small home hatches of nearly-extinct dual-purpose varieties of chickens (which are deemed "inefficient" by the factory poultry industry, even though they don't need a constant input of drugs to keep them from getting sick, and can forage for their own food).

Shortly after emerging from the egg, they will nestle in the palm of your hand, and fall asleep in the warmth. By the end of the week, they have developed personalities (after the first one begins to eat and drink, the others quickly observe and follow its example!). I raised a Speckled Sussex pullet to 5 weeks of age, and a year later she follows people around as they're doing their chores, "talking" loudly to them. One woman I know has a Barred Rock rooster that's almost 11 years old -- by contrast, most of today's meat birds probably won't make it to their second birthday even if they are reprieved, since they often suffer circulatory and bone defects due to their rapid growth.

[BigBearJohn]

10. They'll get their revenge when Bird Flu hits our country.

[expatriot]

15. this is standard practice, you should see what they do to male chicks

they throw them out dumpsters full at a time and they don't even waste the time of trying to kill them first. You don't need roosters to get hens to leg eggs, you just need to them to lay fertilized eggs. So in the egg-laying industry, male chicks are worthless. this practice is well documented.

[shockra]

20. Yes.

It's heartbreaking. :cry: See post #4.

[kestrel91316]

17. Used to be an old worn-out layer was used as a STEWING HEN

and made mighty fine chicken stew if cooked long and slow. Now they throw them in the trash???? What a shameful waste of good food. Makes me embarrassed to be an American, but then waste seems to be the American way these days.

[MisterP]

18. they were slinging live chickens into wood chippers down here in SoCal

problem is, everyone assumes they're ambulatory, feathery squash

[kineneb]

19. totally appalled

I am so glad to have my pet chicken Henrietta. She is a araucana cross and lays lovely large pale-green eggs. She also follows me around in the garden and helps by eating bugs while I dig or pull weeds. We have a cage in the house with a fan next to it so she does not overheat out in the garden.

I just can't bring myself to buy chicken at the market anymore; now this confirms my suspicions.

[Is It Fascism Yet]

21. I followed your links...omg, i hope these people rot in hell

they have sure created hell on earth for the poor creatures in their care, may they rot in hell for it. Boycott big time.

[livinginphotographs]

23. While this is terrible

It seems pretty par for the course for the meat industry.

Sorry for the bland response, but lately I've found myself resigned to the fact that the human race is just a truly vile species.

edit for spelling

[shockra]

24. It does get numbing.

The horrors are endless.

I think the patriarchal might makes right, hierarchal mindset permeates and poisons everything, rather than the human race itself. If instead of glorifying death and destruction we glorified life, it would be a different world.

[Shakespeare]

25. Take responsibility for your food--grow your own

And if you're an urban dweller with no space to do so, try joining a community garden or co-op (that sponsors small local farmers).

There are major health and ethics concerns with large-scale farming and livestock production, but most of us do have the power to take control of our own food, to at least a small extent.

Even though my husband and I live in a condo with a TINY backyard, we have 300 square feet of growing space in our local organic community garden where we're growing our own vegetables, and we have a small hutch and run n our backyard for our two egg-laying dynamos, Aretha and Fontella (and several dwarf fruit trees in pots, to boot). In the future, we hope to raise even more of our food (even the protein-based kind) when we have a larger yard.

It takes time, work and committment, but it's ultimately very rewarding, and we have more confidence in the food we're eating.