Making the Connection (Make the connection) presents the benefits of a vegan diet in a relaxed and informal way. The eleven vegans show various aspects and benefits of veganism, as part of health and animal suffering free food, among others. The music is courtesy of the artists of hip-hop vegans Promoe and Jah Sun.

Read More »

Steven Patrick Morrissey (born 22 May 1959), known only by his last name, Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the band The Smiths.

Morrissey is an advocate for animal rights and a supporter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). In recognition of his support, PETA honored him with the Linda McCartney Memorial Award at their 25th Anniversary Gala on 10 September 2005. In 2012, he appeared in a PETA ad campaign, encouraging people to have their dogs and cats neutered in order to help reduce the number of homeless pets.

In January 2006, Morrissey attracted criticism when he stated that he accepts the motives behind the militant tactics of the Animal Rights Militia, saying "I understand why fur-farmers and so-called laboratory scientists are repaid with violence—it is because they deal in violence themselves and it's the only language they understand."

Morrissey has criticized people in the UK who are involved in the promotion of eating meat, specifically Jamie Oliver and Clarissa Dickson Wright– the latter already targeted by some animal rights activists for her stance on fox hunting. In response, Dickson-Wright stated "Morrissey is encouraging people to commit acts of violence and I am constantly aware that something might very well happen to me."

The Conservative MP David Davis criticized these comments, saying that "any incitement to violence is obviously wrong in a civilized society and should be investigated by the police." On 27 March 2006, Morrissey released a statement that he would not include any concert dates in Canada on his world tour that year—and that he supported a boycott of all Canadian goods—in protest against the country's annual seal hunt, which he described as a "barbaric and cruel slaughter."

In 2009 he abandoned a stage at the Coachella Festival in California because of the smell of cooking meat, stating "I can smell burning flesh and I hope to God its human."

At a concert in Warsaw, Poland on Sunday, 24 July 2011, Morrissey caused more controversy when stating "We all live in a murderous world, as the events in Norway have shown, with 97 dead. Though that is nothing compared to what happens in McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Shit every day," In reference to the recent attacks of Anders Breivik in Norway on 22 July, which resulted in the killing of 69 people who were attending a Youth Labour Party camp on Utøya Island, and eight people working in and around a government building which was bombed. His statement has been seen by many as crude and insensitive. However, Morrissey later elaborated on his statement, saying "If you quite rightly feel horrified at the Norway killings, then it surely naturally follows that you feel horror at the murder of ANY innocent being. You cannot ignore animal suffering simply because animals 'are not us.'"

In February 2013, after much speculation, it was reported that the Staples Center had agreed for the first time ever to make every vendor in the area 100% vegetarian for Morrissey's 1 March performance, contractually having all McDonald's vendors close down. In a press release, Morrissey stated, "I don't look upon it as a victory for me, but a victory for the animals." The request was previously denied to Sir Paul McCartney. Despite these reports, the Staples Center retained some meat vendors while closing down McDonalds. Later in February, Morrissey cancelled an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! after learning that the guests for that night also included the cast of Duck Dynasty, a show about a family who create duck calls for use in hunting. Morrissey referred to the cast as "animal serial killers."

He has stated that "If anyone has seen the horrific and unwatchable footage of the Chinese cat and dog trade - animals skinned alive - then they could not possibly argue in favor of China as a caring nation. There are no animal protection laws in China and this results in the worst animal abuse and cruelty on the planet. It is indefensible."

Read More »

The most common cause of death in the US is Heart Disease. Look at this:

Read More »

Climate and Environmental Impacts

Read More »

"Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity." George Bernard Shaw

Many people will attempt to justify their meat, dairy and egg-eating ways by saying something like this: "It's a tradition in my culture to eat meat, dairy and eggs," or "It's customary among my family (or tribe) to eat meat, dairy and eggs"—or, quite simply, "It's my habit to eat meat, dairy and eggs, and as habits go, it's a hard one to break."

However, to uphold some tradition, custom, or habit for no other reason than that it's a tradition, or a custom, or a habit, is obviously an invalid rationalization for preserving slavery, cruelty and murder. Just like habits, some traditions and customs are good ones, some are harmless, and some are extremely evil. Whether they prove to be good, evil, or innocuous, they didn't get that way just because they were practiced routinely. They were ALWAYS good, evil or innocuous! I understand traditions, customs and habits are hard to break, but EVIL traditions, HARMFUL customs, and BAD habits need to be broken.

The abolition of slavery in America, and of suttee in India (the burning-alive of widowed women along with their dead husbands on the funeral pyre) proves that evil can be eradicated, and that rational minds can overcome the atrocity of many traditions and customs that turn innocent beings into victims without reason or mercy.

Try to place yourself in the animals' position: confined to an artificial world, denied your freedom and the chance to live a long, healthy life, even denied sunlight most of the time. Then imagine yourself on a concentration camp truck, terrified and confused, on your way to the slaughterhouse so someone could slice your throat and cut you up into pieces. If you honestly try to assume the animals' point of view, you will understand why the psychotic addictions of meat, cheese, milk and eggs must be abolished.

If you eat animals and the things that come out of animals, you are causing pain and suffering and polluting yourself with the blood of innocent beings. Today, we knowingly contribute to an endless loop of enslaving and killing animals to preserve the abstract notion of tradition, the vacuous rituals of custom, and the murderous, selfish habit of meat, cheese, milk and egg-consumption. Peace begins at the dinner table, with what you put into your body on a daily basis.

Good people—the ones who maintain good habits, and observe worthwhile traditions and customs— don't just talk about kindness. They practice it. They don't pray about love. They actually give it. It is not your right—based on YOUR traditions, YOUR customs and YOUR habits—to deny animals THEIR freedom so you can harm them, enslave them and kill them. That's not what rights are about. That's injustice. There is no counter-argument to veganism. Accept it. Apologize for the way you've been living. Make amends and move forward.

Source

Read More »

What does Republican Matthew Scully, the former senior speechwriter for George W. Bush, have in common with Ohio's ultra Democrat and former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich? The same thing Russell Simmons, Erykah Badu and Joaquin Phoenix have in common with Cesar Chavez, Pythagoras and Leonardo da Vinci. Besides capturing the hearts and minds of generations, all are vegan. By not wearing fur, leather, wool, silk and down, nor consuming milk, cheese, eggs, honey and the meat of any land or marine animal, they made a compassionate decision to directly save the lives of thousands of animals.

Animals had an inherent right to be free and live completely unfettered by human domination, I wondered why it takes so much time to attain this nonviolent awakening.

I began to ask, "Who taught me that animals were put on this Earth for food? Who taught me to disrespect animals and view them as mere commodities? Who stole my compassion, my empathy and my conscience? Who lied to me? Who instilled this vicious mindset of human-to-animal exploitation as standard operating procedure?"

If every meat, dairy and egg-eater logically and compassionately re-evaluated their beliefs, they would understand why veganism is the only ethical and acceptable way to live on this planet.

Isaac Bashevis Singer, the compassionate Jewish humanitarian who escaped Nazi-occupied Poland, once condemned every animal-exploiter by stating, "What do they know—all these scholars, all these philosophers, all the leaders of the world? They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them [animals], all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka."

Singer's indictment is probably the most damning statement ever about humankind. It establishes the fact that violence is violence and murder is murder even if the victims have beaks, horns, gills, feathers or fur.

It's important to note that animals were the first victims of slavery, oppression and murder. Humans perfected these psychotic techniques on animals before using them on each other. In the last 12 months alone, tens of billions of animals worldwide were enslaved, murdered, dismembered or tortured by the food and clothing industries, in vivisection experiments, by hunters, in rodeos, circuses, and zoos, making the Animal Holocaust the largest and longest-running Holocaust of all time.

When Nazis rounded up Jews, babies were ripped out of their mothers' arms. In the dairy industry, calves are stolen from their mothers after birth. Other animal mothers, such as sows, rabbits and ewes, have their babies taken within days, weeks or months after birth. Separating families is a psychologically devastating tactic used to weaken one's pride and inhibit their desire to retaliate and fight back. Nazis swiped this technique from the meat, dairy and egg industries. Jews were tattooed to mark them. All animals in the meat and dairy industries are branded with hot irons, or ear-notched with a numerical tag. Jews were sent to the concentration camps in the same extermination trucks that still send animals to slaughterhouses. The Nazis constructed human slaughterhouses to massacre millions, while these torture-buildings have been strategically built all over the planet to massacre billions of animals. Jews have been, while animals still are, treated like nothing, as if their lives don't matter.

You can also compare the two Holocausts this way. Go to the nearest cow or pig slaughterhouse and remove the animals and replace them with humans. You have now re-created Birkenau. If you travel back in time and remove the Jews from Birkenau and replace them with cows or pigs, a Holocaust is still taking place. During my 2012 lectures in Israel, after showing a new slaughterhouse video, I asked thousands of people the following: "How come if the animals in that video were dogs or cats, you'd be outraged? If they were kids, you'd be screaming bloody murder! Instead the victims are cows and chickens and fish and all of a sudden no one cares, it's okay? So I'm a little confused here. Is the slaughterhouse a problem? Or is the problem who's getting killed in the slaughterhouse? It's a HOUSE OF SLAUGHTER. Why does it even exist? Especially in a country that loves to say, 'NEVER AGAIN. IT'LL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.' I got some news for ya. The Animal Holocaust was happening long before the Jewish Holocaust, during the Jewish Holocaust and it's still happening today. It's time for Israel to become the first nation on this planet to abolish concentration camps once and for all."

The global atrocity of eating animals kills more innocent beings in one year than all human atrocities over the past 5,000 years combined! This makes veganism the most important aspect of animal rights because almost every animal who is abused and killed on this planet is abused and killed by the meat, dairy and egg industries, despite the fact that no one in this day and age needs meat, cheese, milk and eggs to survive. The only exception would be people residing in icy environments or desert settings. But eating animals for pure survival is rare with only around 1 percent of the earth's population being able to use this excuse. Keep in mind, this is just a valid excuse and NOT a justification. I understand why they do it. I wouldn't do it under any circumstances, but I understand their motives. Everyone else on this planet eats animals and the things that come out of animals for four reasons: Habit, convenience, taste and tradition. With the addition of the profit motive, those are invalid, unnecessary and barbaric reasons to intentionally harm animals.

Meat, dairy and egg-eating societies are also the main cause of world hunger as they continually feed around 50 percent of the world's corn, wheat, oats and soy to 60 billion land animals and tens of billions of marine animals (fish-farming) instead of hundreds of millions of starving people! Every two to three seconds, someone on this planet dies from malnutrition while pigs and cows get fat. Consequently, meat, dairy and egg-eaters are anti-human because feeding billions of animals instead of millions of hungry children is an indirect form of genocide.

Worldwide, around 60 billion land animals [10 billion in the USA] and 90 billion marine animals [18 billion in the USA] are killed and eaten every year in a monumental Holocaust borne of ignorance, arrogance and racism. The human race v. animal race brand of racism permits humans to enslave and kill any other species with impunity. Singer calls speciesism the "purest form of racism" because it kills more innocent beings that any form of human-to-human racism.

This is why vegans are the utmost humanitarians. We indiscriminately seek justice for all by doing unto others as we would have done unto ourselves [THE GOLDEN RULE].

As an ethical vegan, it's logical for me to proclaim that the only nice slaughterhouse is an empty slaughterhouse. This statement, however, is often challenged by uninformed, egocentric individuals who believe mercy and kindness are exclusive to humans. But to deny every animal's inherent right to fly, swim and run freely is cruel and dishonest. If given an option, no animal would choose pain or death.

To understand the compassionate movement of animal rights, empathy must be used to examine the issue from the animals' point of view. This isn't a radical concept either. Abolitionists looked at slavery through the eyes of subjugated blacks, just as the Allied Forces looked at Nazism through the eyes of Jews and other non-Aryans whom Hitler labeled unworthy and expendable. Empathy allows people to understand the injustice without over-analyzing the issue, especially when those in power deem the victims unworthy and expendable, something Hitler, slave-owners, and meat, dairy and egg-eaters have all done to their respective victims.

In an attempt to defile the animal rights movement, meat, dairy and egg-eaters often proclaim that Hitler practiced vegetarianism. However, biographers Albert Speer and Robert Payne attested to Hitler's love for liver dumplings, stuffed squab [pigeon], ham and sausage. German Chef Dione Lucas wrote about Hitler's carnivorism in her Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook, published in 1964. Rynn Berry's Hitler: Neither Vegetarian Nor Animal Lover describes how Goebbels, The Third Reich's propaganda minister, tried to sell Hitler as a vegetarian to make him seem as peaceful as Gandhi. The next section in this series, HITLER WAS NOT VEGETARIAN, provides ample evidence that, contrary to a good deal of popular misconception, Hitler and his henchmen were not vegetarians at all.

Were you also aware that animals in the meat, dairy and egg industries receive no legal protection whatsoever? After all, slavery and slaughterhouses cannot co-exist with freedom and protection. Here's an excerpt from section two of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), the federal law that oversees animal-use in America: "When used in this act, the term "animal" ... excludes farm animals, such as, but not limited to, livestock and poultry used or intended for use as food ..." That's pretty cute, isn't it? The animals who are enslaved or eaten aren't even recognized as animals under the law. Does this remind you of another piece of legislation that ignored the victims and existed to shield victimizers from prosecution? When the Constitution was first enacted, only land-owning, slave-owning, white men of European descent were protected. Blacks, Natives, women and many others were conveniently excluded.

The AWA, kosher and halal-style killings, and the free-range/freedom/organic/cage-free/antibiotic-free/hormone-free/grass-fed/buying local marketing terms are used to manipulate people into thinking that meat, dairy and egg production can be done happily and humanely. But there is no such thing as happy and humane slaughter just as there is no such thing as happy and human rape, happy and humane slavery, or happy and humane child molestation. From the animals' point of view, anyone who commodifies their bodies is equally vicious. And if for some reason my aforesaid words aren't proof enough of the terrorism claims I'm lodging against the meat, dairy and egg establishments—and the people who consume these products—maybe the billions of dead, dismembered animal bodies consumed annually could count as proof.

Fortunately, de-programming the perfunctory ways of meat, dairy and egg-eaters is possible. The University of North Texas opened a vegan dining hall in 2011, a New York elementary school turned its cafeteria vegetarian in 2013, and the Victor Valley Medium Community Correctional Facility in Adelanto, California, successfully ran a vegan rehabilitation program, just to name a few. My lectures convert thousands to veganism annually while thousands more significantly reduce their meat, cheese, milk and egg intake. Reduction and abolition are the only options to end this massacre. Welfare regulations are a stamp of approval to let the carnage continue unabated because compassionate ways of enslaving and killing billions of animals do not exist.

This is why we shouldn't be a fan of legislation. Fighting for bigger cages or "better" treatment of animals is contradictory and ridiculous. It will never lead to empty cages. When examining human liberation movements, you'll notice that Malcolm X and Dr. King didn't fight for "better" treatment of blacks via improved segregation policies. They wanted to abolish segregation. They fought for equality and freedom. Cesar Chavez fought for it, too. Same thing when Gandhi liberated India from British rule. If abolition instead of welfare were somehow legislated, I'd be down for that. But I don't believe you can legislate until you educate. Passing welfare laws—which won't be enforced anyway—without explaining why it's evil to commodify animals is backwards.

In America, each meat, dairy and egg-eater is responsible for the deaths of 3,000 land animals and thousands of other marine animals throughout their lifetime. Meat, dairy and egg-eating, however, is not an instinctive behavior. It is learned tradition. Scientific claims of the human body being omnivorous or carnivorous are erroneous and illogical. If someone placed a two-year old child in a crib with a bunny rabbit and an apple, the child would play with the rabbit and eat the apple, an unambiguously herbivorous reaction. People become inured to the taste of blood, flesh, veins, muscles, tendons, cow secretions [milk], hen-ass droppings [eggs] and bee vomit [honey], as I will discuss in the "Humans Are Herbivores" section.

Since veganism is for anybody who wants to be kind to animals, good to the environment and healthy, millions of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, black, white, Asian, Latino, Native, pro-life, pro-choice, pro-gun and anti-gun people live a vegan lifestyle. Millions of Democrats, Independents and Republicans are vegan as well. Tales of tree-hugging liberals being the only supporters of veganism couldn't be further from the truth. Scully's Dominion is a right-wing, faith-based, Christian conservative view supporting veganism because ethnicity, religious affiliation or political party have no bearing on eating a veggie burger tonight instead of a hamburger.

Source

Read More »

ANIMAL FARM: DAIRY

The most exploited animal for their milk is the cow, but also exploited the goats and sheeps, camels and so on, to extract milk.

Confinement

In the wild, a cow can live up to 20 years. Dairy cows intended for industrial production of milk are confined in small spaces where they are enslaved, until at age four die of exhaustion and then are sent to the slaughterhouse.

Mammals produce milk because have given birth

Some people believe that cows always produce milk because that's normal for them, but this is not true. The mammary glands of cows, as with the mammary glands of women, only produce milk when they have given birth. To make this clear we ask via email to Antonio Callejo Ramos, professor of the Disc. Animal Production E.U.I.T. Agricultural (UPM):

Q: Good morning, I'm not your college student, I would just like to ask you if I may, perhaps consider silly but I would greatly appreciate you furnish any information on the subject as I am quite confused. A cow produces milk or whenever it is necessary to generate it provided it has been fertilized? Thank you.

A: To a female mammalian milk there must be been impregnated, has completed gestation and therefore calved. The difference between species is that some of them have struggled to emerge again into heat and become pregnant for the duration of lactation. Others, however, like the cow, can go into heat a few weeks after delivery and, if you become pregnant, lactation match result of previous birth with gestation of a new calf. I hope I have resolved your doubts.

Separation of mother and child

As calves are not beneficial for the dairy industry, because they drink cow's milk, are separated from their mother, and sold to be killed for their meat. As mammals, cows have a very strong maternal instinct, and therefore suffer greatly when they are separated from their children, being able to hear their cries for days. There have been cases of cows that have been just amazing acts to join their calves, one of which she walked for seven miles to be reunited with her son after it was sold at auction. The suffering that this separation causes the breeding is hardly imaginable.

The following video shows the reunion between a cow and her son. We can see how the cows love their children, and trauma that separation occurs both because of those who sell and buy dairy products and beef. Karma (video cow) is in a farm sanctuary. Apparently she had been crying all night after being rescued, and rescuers were helpless without knowing it was what was wrong. Later, they discovered what was happening and decided to go to the rescue of the son of Karma.

Calves that are brought to the slaughterhouse

The cows calve calves exploited for their milk, are killed at 6 months of age at slaughter and their bodies are called "beef." Other calves, which are exploited for meat called "vellum" or "babybeef", are even worse fate. The industry beef is a branch of the dairy industry and explains Peter Singer:

"As we have seen, industry beef is a branch of the dairy industry. Producers must ensure that dairy cows remain pregnant each year to keep producing milk. Calves are separated from their mothers at birth, one experience that is so painful for the mother and is terrifying for the calf.'s mother calm his anxiety often constantly calling and mooing for days after you have taken to breeding. Some calves will be reared on dairy substitutes to eventually become part of the rows of dairy cows when after reaching the age of about two years to produce milk. Others calves will be sold with one or two weeks old and will be bred to "steak" in engordaderos. the remainder are sold to beef producers , those with the dairy industry to the diet that is fed to these calves to keep them anemic ". Peter Singer, Animal Liberation

Mothers who are taken to slaughter

The cows' milk "are killed when their milk production levels fall (and again this occurs both in intensive farming as traditional). A farmer or a company not interested in having a cow that does not produce enough (to cows whose milk production has dropped are called "dry cows"), as the reason that was raised was the ability to give milk . The interests of any animal inconsiderate always exploited in the interests of anyone who exploits, so we can not talk seriously about which animals are respected until the day that these are no longer servants to humans can get them a benefit. 

Cows can live twenty years instead on factory farms typically live about four years because when they stop producing enough milk no longer profitable and then they are sent to slaughter. Sometimes the cows arrive at the slaughterhouse pregnant and then the following happens:

Some research

In July 2012, the animal rights organization presented the research "Orphans of milk: the dairy industry in Chile" showing animal exploitation of the dairy industry in Chile, but it could be elsewhere. They toured farms small and medium producers to the most modern campus in South America, to show the horror of which are systematically subject those involved in dairy production. A life of constant deprivation, subjugation, maternity and children caught truncated nobody should ignore. Isabel Collao, of EligeVeganismo, was interviewed on CNN Chile regarding the investigation.

The milk of a mother is to her child, respect them.

Read More »

ANIMAL FARM: EGGS

An egg is a rounded body size and hardness variables that produce females from different groups of animals, and supports and protects the embryo if the egg is fertilized, thus becoming zygote. Oviparous vertebrates lay eggs, with little or no development inside the mother, and many invertebrates. This is the reproduction of many fish, amphibians and reptiles, all birds, mammals monotremes, and most insects and arachnids. When the eggs develop inside the mother ovoviviparismo discussing.

The egg laying hen is your ovulation, therefore, as occurs when a woman ovulates (the next rule) is not necessary that the hen has sex for them. Only fertilized eggs chicks born.

The ways in how you can get an egg are:

- Exploitation of hens in cages.

- Exploitation of hens in floor.

- Exploitation of hens.

- Exploitation of ecological chickens.

- Hen as "pet".

Stealing eggs

Across the European Union 97.2 billion eggs are stolen from their mothers, bound for the food industry. Theft occurs in both chicks hatcheries and farm eggs for consumption.

Sexing chicks

With chicken sexing separates males from females in sexing carousels where millions of chickens are treated as mere commodities. The chicks are stressed, are hit and suffer fractures.The chicks that pass through the carousel sexed and have economic value are sold to farms to organic farms to family farms and individuals.

The male chicks are killed

For each laying hen, whether it is confined in a cage or jacket that is a chicken in "freedom", there is a male chick who was killed at the hatchery. This is because hens breeds have been genetically selected exclusively for maximum egg production, males do not lay eggs and are not fattening fast enough or not enough weight to reach the eating of meat. Therefore, male chicks hens breeds have no economic value, since it does not lay eggs nor are fattening broiler breed quickly, and literally thrown away the day they are born, usually by the cheapest means: thrown into trash cans by the thousands, male chicks die axfisiados or crushed by the weight of others, are directly gassed or crushed.

Another common method for getting rid of unwanted male chicks is grinding them alive. This can lead to unimaginable horrors, as described by a scientist who observed that "even after twenty seconds, there were only partly damaged animals with whole skulls". That is fully conscious chicks were partially ground slowly into a brutal agony. Eyewitness in hatcheries indicate similar horrors of chicks being slowly dismembered by machinery blades en route to the trash bins or manure spreaders.

- A hidden camera investigation by Mercy For Animals showed how male chicks are ground on a poultry farm center, a common practice in the industry.

Some of these male chicks end up being painted and sold in stalls like toys. The chicks are usually painted with aniline, which is a toxic substance, and with vegetable dyes. As a result, many chicks die in the process or in the days after purchase.

Beak trimming

Beak trimming is a common practice among poultry farm farms (including so-called 'green') which involves amputating the peak (bone, cartilage and tissue) to chicks 5-10 days old by a machine BEAK. The machine BEAK peak amputated end of chicks by a hot blade cauterized the cut. The wound bleeds and sometimes burns and infections occur, not forgetting the obvious pain mutilation. Beak trimming is twofold: to prevent cannibalism among the most stressed birds and reduce feed waste.

In the book Guidelines for the management of a poultry farm beak trimming is explained as follows:

"This practice has two purposes, to prevent cannibalism (which occurs frequently by stress) and reduce feed waste. Should be done quickly because to a machine that is used BEAK with hot knife cuts both generally upper and lower part of the beak. warm blade cauterized (stops bleeding) cutting, avoiding massive bleeding. cannibalism starts pecking and feather plucking of each other, until the break or cut skin and bleeding. If not controlled in time at this stage of bleeding, more aggressive birds end up killing the weakest. the red color of blood is what catches their attention more, so that the problem of cannibalism is more serious in birds of clear or white ". Boris Coto, Guidelines for the management of a poultry farm

The bill has very important functions for birds. Besides being a means of defense and perception of sensations, is the mouth of the birds, and therefore the input for food. Many birds whose beaks have been starved amputees to get their beaks stuck, for the pain of the injury or because they can not hold the food.

It is also common for bird calls "organic farms" are also the peak amputee, because birds are crowded at night and also stress often leads to set upon each other. A chicks intended for the sale of their meat were also amputated the peak, as they are also crowded during the 21-39 days that makes them fat quickly.

Overcrowding of hens

When females are old enough to lay eggs, with about 16 or 18 weeks, moved to the farm of chickens, a plant generally consists of several buildings, each the length of a football field, filled with rows of wire cages, sometimes stacked to the roof: is what is called "battery hens". These cages have uneven ground, so that the egg rolling through a conveyor path of the next stage of production.

To optimize the production of each building, many chickens are crammed in the same cage as possible.

There are two types of cages for hens: conventional or adapted or upgraded and enriched. The conventional or unenriched cages are banned in the European Union are the only authorized cages enriched cages. This decision took in 1999 and entered into force on January 1, 2012. European legislation provides that each hen enriched cages must have a minimum of 750 cm ² of cage / chicken, 600 cm ² of which shall be usable. 

To give us an idea of the space available to the hens who live in these cages for their entire life is less than the surface of a sheet of A4 size paper (21 x 29.7 = 623.7 cm ²). The cage should have a minimum of 30 cm of usable width and a maximum inclination of 14%, plus a minimum of 45 cm in height. In addition, the cage must have a nest, litter such that pecking and scratching, and adequate perches that offer at least a space of 15 cm per hen. The nest and perch are not counted as usable area.

The conditions are reduced, preventing the animal performing normal behaviors such as nesting and grooming, both important for the hens. Constantly rubbing against the wire cages, they suffer from severe feather loss, and their bodies are covered with bruises and abrasions.

Forced to a lifetime of foot, legs are deformed, the wire cut your fingers, which also bows and become claws to hold on an unsuitable floor. Sometimes in cold conditions your legs are frozen in the bars.

Molting

Laying hens may be forced to make molting leaving them in darkness, making them go hungry and thirsty for 18 days to stimulate their bodies to complete another laying cycle. Typically between 5 and 10% of birds die of starvation or dehydration during molting, and those who survive may lose more than 25% of their body weight. The move makes starting a new cycle of egg laying when the production floor, and so lengthen the economic productivity of these animals. The photo hen was rescued from a factory egg with broken body by this method.

"Spent" hens

Currently each half hen lays 260 eggs per year. The statistics of 1940 showed a production of 134 eggs per hen per year, which gives us insight into the genetic and environmental manipulations were carried out to double production . They suffer from " fatty liver syndrome " when their liver cells working overtime to produce fat and protein for egg yolks, accumulate extra fat . They also suffer from what the industry calls ' cage fatigue " , and many animals die when their bodies are too weak to lay an egg . Osteoporosis is another common ailment that afflicts laying hens , because their bodies lose more calcium to form egg shells than they can assimilate from their diets. Some hens used an amount of calcium for yearly egg production that is greater than the weight of the entire skeleton . Lack of calcium aids in the breakdown of bones , paralysis , and death. After one year in egg production , birds are classified as " spent hens " and sent to slaughter. His brittle bones, and decalcified often break during the trip to the slaughterhouse . They usually end up as ingredients in soups , pies or meat products of inferior quality, in which bodies can be shredded to hide the bruises consumers .

In a guide for management explained in a poultry farm hens wear well:

" A" selection " practice of detecting , first by sight and then by individual physical examination , all those birds that have no uniformity within a flock and who appear ill and / or are not producing. Once localized to a chicken with the appearance of not being in production , one proceeds to check her separation with the pelvic bones , which are located on both sides of the gutter and between which there must be a gap of about three cm . This separation or space is necessary because there must pass the egg. It is important to make this selection because the birds do not reduce the profits of productive activity . For this reason you should always be rigorous selection , you should make when birds turn 15 weeks old and again at five weeks into production. Then you must perform at least once a month . "Boris Coto, " Guidelines for the management of a poultry farm!"

Slaughterhouse
All hens, have spent their lives in a cage or "freedom" in the slaughterhouse just once cease to be productive and therefore profitable for the speciesist because a chicken is not an individual who deserves respect but one thing that produces benefits. This was explained in a guide for management in a poultry farm:

"The ideal time to make the decision to remove certain batch of birds is when the value of the egg produced is equal to the cost of food." Boris Coto, "Guidelines for the management of a poultry farm"

Buy eggs from hens in "freedom" reduces some of the suffering of these animals in life, something that is positive but insufficient if we want to treat these beings with respect and justice they deserve. Their lives, and ours, should not be owned by anyone because they are not simple objects.

Not for health reasons but for ethics

It should be clear that vegans do not eat eggs because of ethical reasons to the other animals, not a health issue. The health arguments are for information only. For example, failing to consume eggs we will improve our health. Eating just one egg at breakfast can raise cholesterol levels up to 10 points. The human body produces all the cholesterol it needs, and when extra cholesterol is consumed, the excess clogs arteries.

- In August 2012, researchers at University Hospital in London (United Kingdom), vascular prevention experts, studied data from 1231 men and women with an average age of 61.5 years. Using ultrasound measured the total area of ​​plate and collected simultaneously data on lifestyle including medication, cigarette smoking and number of egg yolks consumed per week. It identified that both excess snuff as the abuse of egg yolks (three or more per week) accelerate atherosclerosis, as reported in the journal Atherosclerosis. Remind investigators in diabetics, for example, it was found that an egg yolk a day can increase from 2 to 5 times the risk of coronary heart disease.

- Eggs are one of the main sources of salmonella, a bacteria that sickens millions and cause up to 3,800 deaths annually in the U.S.

Read More »