A quote from a speech transcript by Norm Phelps:

“You can’t walk a mile in the shoes of a battery chicken, because battery chickens can’t walk a foot, much less a mile. But stand for an hour in the cage of a battery chicken, Stand jammed so tightly in a cage with other birds that you cannot turn around or stretch your wings. Stand up to your knees in your own excrement and the excrement of your fellow prisoners while being constantly splattered with the feces and urine of prisoners in cages stacked above you. Breathe air so poisonous with ammonia from the urine that your jailers and torturers have to wear protective masks when they enter the building. Never see sunshine. Never breathe fresh air. If you are injured or fall ill, just suffer; nobody cares, nobody is going to send for a doctor. If you die, so what? It’s cheaper that way.”

“This is the existence of a battery hen from shortly after she is born until the moment she is slaughtered. She never sees sunlight, she never breathes clean air, she never takes dust baths or pecks in the dirt, she never sleeps on a perch or sits on a nest, all activities that are vital to the mental as well as the physical health of chickens. This is her life, joyless, hopeless, saturated with suffering 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the two years that she is allowed to live, a bleak, abysmal, agonizing existence without friendship, comfort, or consolation.”

The rest of the speech is about abolitionism versus welfarism, so it’s  only relevant to people who’ve already stopped eating chickens and their eggs. if that describes you, then you can read the transcript here: http://www.tlov.org/tlov2009/norm-phelps-nw.html

If you’re not yet one of those people who have stopped eating chickens and their eggs, here are some links to get you started on the path towards a more honorable dietary position:

Veg Starter Kit: Mercy for Animals and FARM have teamed up to provide free vegetarian starter kits to anyone who asks. Simply complete the online form and receive your starter kit in the mail. The starter kit is a 32-page color magazine that explains the benefits of a plant-based diet, offers practical advice on making healthy changes, provides nutrition information, and supplies you with delicious veg recipes.

Vegan at Heart: This is an email newsletter program that’s aimed at people who aren’t really vegan, they’re just vegan at heart. As a subscriber, they promise to send you one vegan “mission” in your inbox every day for 30 days. These missions take only 1 to 10 minutes to complete. Then, after the initial 30 days, you slow down and begin to receive weekly missions.

Happy Cow – ” the internet’s most widely used and longest operating worldwide vegetarian restaurant guide.”

Thanks for reading.

3,208 views
Sections: Vegan Resources, Vegan Theory
Topics: abolitionism, battery cages, chickens, eggs, factory farming, Food, Francione, hens, humane, links, phelps, resources, speech, Theory, vegaan kit, Vegan, welfarism, why vegan