1. It takes approximately 34 hours for a hen to produce an egg.
2. So to keep up with demand, more than 300 million hens are used by the U.S. egg industry every year.
3. Their lives are two years of misery, starting right when they are born.
4. Chicks are born in large incubators such as these.
5. They will never see their mothers.
6. Shortly after birth, the males and females are separated.
7. The females head to a life in the egg industry …
8. … and the males are either tossed into trash bags to suffocate …
9. … or ground up alive.
More than 100 million male chicks are killed by the egg industry every year.
10. The female chicks have the ends of their beaks cut off with a hot blade.
This is done so that they don’t hurt each other out of frustration during their intense confinement.
11. Five to 11 hens are crammed into tiny wire “battery” cages.
On average, each hen has less living space than a standard piece of printer paper.
12. The cages are often stacked on top of one another …
13. … which allows urine and feces to fall down onto birds in the lower cages.
These large piles of feces below the cages are common on some egg farms.
14. Because of the terrible living conditions, chickens often die in their cages.
15. They are sometimes left to rot in the same space with living birds.
16. After about two years, those who have survived are sent to slaughter.
17. At the slaughterhouse, laying hens meet the same bloody end as that of chickens raised for their meat.
18. They are shackled and hung upside down …
19. … they are electrocuted …
20. … their throats are cut …
21. … and they are often scalded to death.
Chickens are smart, social, sensitive animals who deserve a much better life than this. Help chickens everywhere by refusing to eat eggs. And if you think more people need to see where their eggs comes from, share this page on Facebook.
