If It is Thursday it's Going Green - Humane Farm Animal Care

Battery Cages

Like all chickens raised for eggs, these hens have had large portions of their sensitive beaks cut off, and they will spend their entire lives in a filthy, cramped wire cage. Each hen has an area smaller than a sheet of notebook paper in which to stand and does not have enough space to spread even one wing. The cages are stacked on top of one another, so excrement from hens in higher cages often falls on those below. Ammonia and the stench of feces hang heavy in the air, and disease is rampant in these filthy, cramped conditions.

Humane Farm Animal Care

I was buying organic eggs until I recently viewed a video of the chickens on the farm where the eggs came from. It showed the chickens living in cramped cages with several being squeezed into a small space. Their beaks are ground down so low that they cannot even groom themselves. Their living situations are just deplorable. I learned that I should seek out free range eggs from chickens who are fed organically. I am happy to report that I was able to purchase them from the local farmer’s market.

It's sad fact, but more than 10 billion animals are raised for food in the United States every year and many of them are treated inhumanely.

Animals are frequently confined in spaces so small they can't stretch their limbs, flap their wings or turn around. These unnatural practices compromise their immune systems, so to keep them alive they are pumped full of antibiotics, damaging the quality and safety of our food and our medicines.

Grocers need to know that their customers won't stand for the inhumane practices at factory farms. And when grocers know, you, their customers demand Certified Humane® foods, they will in turn require their suppliers (the farmers and growers) meet those standards.

You can take a stand against factory farms by buying Certified Humane® products. The Certified Humane® label on a product means: the animals are fed a healthy diet without antibiotics or hormones, cages and crates are prohibited and the animals have ample space for them to stretch their limbs, flap their wings and move around.

Pledge to buy Certified Humane® products. If you cannot find them at your local grocery store ask your grocer to start selling Certified Humane® foods.

Better yet, consider not eating meat. Or at least try one or two meat free meals a week. Educate yourself about the foods that you purchase for your family. In Western New York the farmers have already started to bring their foods to the open markets and there is plenty to choose from.

Choose organic (no chemicals added). If you buy in a local store check the labels and try to purchase foods that were not transported from other countries or distant states. This will cut down on pollution in the environment caused by trucks driving thousands of miles to your area.

Buy local and read those labels