a gentle place

See, smell, hear, believe

Posted By Harry on July 5, 2010

A tweet alerted me to an imminent rescue of 1500 battery hens in New South Wales. That may seem a lot but more than that would have died in the egg and meat industry in the time it took your browser to open this page. (And I’m assuming you’re on broadband and not dial-up.) Having visited battery hen “farms”, having smelt the death and decay inside, having seen the cruelty with eyes wide open but hand clasped over nose and mouth, I battle to understand why we – you and me and everyone around us – allow them to exist. While the cacophony continues inside the monstrous sheds, battery cages tiered row upon row, the silence outside remains deafening.

Ignorance is largely to blame. Both desired ignorance (“I don’t want to know”) and forced ignorance (the public are persona non grata in those sheds). Education must be the key to banishing them to a sorry part of history. Education of every person, regardless of age, that the utmost cruelty exists within those sheds that sit back from the highway. That, should they choose to eat a chicken nugget, bite into a chicken burger or ask for their eggs to be fried sunny-side up, they will perpetuate that cruelty. Too many are not aware of what goes on behind closed shed doors. Too many believe the marketing propaganda showing newborn chicks and well-feathered hens living in Chook Utopia. And an unfortunate number choose to believe what their hearts tell them isn’t true. That’s easy to do if it’s all kept out of sight.

So the tweet and the value it contains: Twitter, Facebook, websites, blogs, newspapers, television and radio – people should not be afforded the luxury of ignorance that absolves them of the complicit cruelty of their choices. Visuals and audio of the cruelty must be out for all to see and hear. And if the cruelty can no longer be avoided yet people continue to support food industries such as battery and broiler hen operations then, and only then, can we call humans collectively cruel and heartless.

So to Catherine and her crew “Good Luck”, this link to the superb work you’re doing, a $50 dollar donation, and a few pictures of some of our ex-battery hens for those who cannot access those sheds.