A Town in Texas That Loves its Chickens (in a good way!!)

The town of Bastrop, Texas (pop. 7,218), has become a huge chicken sanctuary!

No kidding! And from watching this video, the folks in town are fiercely protective of their Poultry Population!

They even have Chicken Crossing Signs in town!

"This is one animal loving community," says Kay Garcia McAnally, a city councilwoman from the town. "But they're especially proud of their chickens."

People will even run out into the middle of the street and motion to cars to slow down so they don't run over the local chickens. Townsfolk mourned the loss of one of their roosters when he got hit by a car.

Don't mess with the chickens of Bastrop, Texas. They are loved. In a good way!

The Horrors of Broiler Chicken Factory Farms

If you get a moment, please - please - read Leah Graces' troubling article "Why We Haven't Seen Inside a Broiler Chicken Farm in a Decade" in Food Safety News. It is a must-read for those of us who are concerned about the fate of factory-farmed animals, especially chickens, who live in the worst conditions imaginable and are killed by the billions around the world each year. Early in the article, Graces quotes New Yorker writer Michael Spencer, who visited a broiler chicken factory farm back in 2003. At the time Spencer wrote:

I was almost knocked to the ground by the overpowering smell of feces and ammonia. My eyes burned and so did my lungs, and I could neither see nor breathe….There must have been thirty thousand chickens sitting silently on the floor in front of me. They didn’t move, didn’t cluck. They were almost like statues of chickens, living in nearly total darkness, and they would spend every minute of their six-week lives that way.

According to Graces, ever since Spencer's article, animal rights activists not been able to penetrate the dark and secretive world of broiler chicken factory farms. As Graces notes:

Most photos and video from factory farms come from undercover investigators who manage to get hired to work within the farm and then secretly gather images for an external organization.  This is next to impossible in a broiler factory farm.   There is hardly a ‘job’ involved in raising broilers in factory farms anymore. Often there are only one or two people, usually the farm owners, overseeing multiple houses, each house filled with tens of thousands of birds.

This article is essential reading because it sheds light on a world we so seldom see. Broiler hens live short lives full of despair, horror and anxiety. With states across America toughening Ag-Gag laws, and with laws such as the Orwellian-esque Animal Facilities Protection Act and the Federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act making it a felony (and act of terrorism) for a person to enter an "animal facility" (read: slaughterhouse, factory farm, fur farm, etc. etc.) under false pretenses, the Animal Murdering Machine has moved into high gear to prevent the public from seeing what happens inside of these ultra-violent charnel houses.

The way to combat such abuses is to increase our awareness, to bring these institutions out of the darkness, and to shed light on the horrors that exist within the walls. This is what Leah Graces has done, and she is to be commended.

Check it Out: Steve-O Speaks Out Against Factory Farming

Wonderful Steve-O, of Jackass fame (one of my guilty pleasures over the years), narrates a Farm Sanctuary video that looks absolutely extraordinary. It is the story of a pig, cow and chicken who manage to escape the horrors of factory farms. While I haven't seen it yet, I've watched plenty of other Farm Sanctuary videos, and I love the work they do.

In this interview with vegan and animal rights supporter Jane Velez-Mitchell, Steve-O discusses his efforts to humanize the three stars of the film. "Whenever you can even give one of these animals a name, I think you're doing something pretty major," he tells the Velez-Mitchell. "People don't want to think of their meal as a living thing that has a name or a personality or anything like that. By talking about just one pig, you really get through to people in a special way."

Check out this brief interview, if you get a chance. It's short and it's exciting to see such a high-profile figure speaking out for the animals. Go Steve-O!!!

Food For Thought: Reflections on Double Standards

I love this image.

About ten years ago, I was in Vietnam and I was horrified to see dogs and cats squirming in small cages, barely bigger than their own bodies, a thought that still horrifies me.

When I came back to the United States, these images continued to haunt me in my memories. Those poor animals, in that sweltering heat, cramped together, with hardly any room to move around.

The Vietnamese sold these cats and dogs in open-air markets as pets. Eventually, the animals would be freed and sent to live with people. But seeing them in those cages, in triple-digit, equatorial heat and muggy humidity, nearly broke my heart.

It took me a while - another seven years - to put two and two together and realize that what we do in North America to pigs and chickens and cows is really no different.

We have social taboos about cramming dogs and cats into tight, tiny cages like the ones pictured above, where they hardly have any room to move around. Sadly, we don't have any taboos about dropping them off at shelters and letter other people do our dirty work for us. But there should be a taboo against that.

Nor are there any taboos in our society about cramming livestock into cold, dark spaces, where they'll live short lives of being frightened and disoriented. There should be a taboo against that, too.

Images like this one help bring our double standards into perspective. We should feel an instinctive revulsion about the prospect of imprisoning any animal in a tight space, not meant to be inhabited by a sentient being, as much as we feel that revulsion toward doing the same thing to a human being.

The Vietnamese typically set their animals free from those little cages. Can we say the same about our pigs, chickens and cows?

Mother Hens and their Babies

Anyone who has spent time around chickens knows they're extraordinary birds. They're intelligent. They love their families. And they have a natural inner yearning to live freely that is shared by humans and other sentient beings. Check out some of these videos if you get a chance. They show mother hens and their babies living life and being together. Watching these amazing animals in action, I am grateful I no longer eat them - and never will again.

Introducing the Amazing Chicken (courtesy of Jonathan Balcombe)

Animal Behaviorist Jonathan Balcombe, one of my favorite authors, was interviewed for this fascinating documentary on chickens.

His interview is part of a 2008 documentary titled Fowl Play, an amazing looking documentary on the world of chickens. The film looks like a wonderful documentary about the treatment of chickens in the factory farm system and the efforts of activists to save these beautiful birds and help give them a peaceful life.

The interview is fascinating and I am posting it here because I am a big fan of Balcombe's writings. Incidentally, Fowl Play is brought to us by... Yep! You guessed it... The wonderful folks at Mercy for Animals.

Animal Rights groups do not get any more humane or effective than M.F.A. They have done so much to help teach people about the evils of the exploitation and mass murder of animals.

Thank you, Mercy for Animals, for all you do for animals. And thank you for interviewing Jonathan Blacombe for your documentary. He is one of the most insightful and humane voices in the struggle for a more just world.

Another Powerful Must-See Video

Actor James Cromwell (The Queen, L.A. Confidential) narrates this powerful Mercy for Animals video on the deplorable treatment of animals in the Factory Farm Gulag. It's so effectively made, and so heartbreaking, that I'm posting it here.

These videos are essential viewing. I've always been of the belief that films - short films, feature films, documentary films - are one of the most effective ways of winning over omnivores and vegetarians to a cruetly-free vegan lifestyle.

Many folks, whatever their political persuasion, are innately kind and hate to see animals treated poorly. Sadly, there are some very kind people who are torn. They hate seeing animals treated harshly, but they want their meat, they want their eggs and milk, they want their fish and all of their animal products. The thought of not ever eating meat or eggs or fish or dairy products seems too stark to them. They hate seeing animals go through pain, but their love of animal products outweighs their desire to see an end to animal suffering.

The key with omnivores is to figure how to tip the scale so that it weighs more in the direction of wanting to see the elimination, once and for all, of the exploitation and mass murder of animals.

How to accomplish this??? Well, as I said in my Blog the other day, the Animal Rights Movement is a Big Tent struggle with lots of people trying their damnedest to end this kind of suffering and bloodletting. Who has the right approach? That is up to you to decide.

But I'll tell you who does not have the right approach: Those who believe that it is OK to consume animals, whether it is done as food or clothing (or for any other purposes). They need to understand the suffering their choices are causing. The best way to get through to them, I think, is to beam the message through audio-visual means, or to write about it or lecture about it in such a powerful way as to hit the message home clearly, and without second guessing.

And that message, as we all know, is that causing suffering - any kind of suffering, whether human or non-human animal suffering - is not acceptable and will not be tolerated by those who want to create a truly civilized society.

Call me a Pollyanna, but I'm optimistic that we're moving in the right direction. More and more people are going vegan. The Internet has been a godsend, helping to beam the message to the remote corners of the world. And it has enabled us to see that good people - in Asia, in Latin America, in the Middle East, in Europe - are mobilizing on behalf of the animals.

The recent events in Egypt have shown us the nobility of the fight for human rights and democracy. That fight must begin to spread so that all sentient beings are included in the equation. It isn't easy. The trick is for the waves to keep battering the cliffs, eroding the earth, changing the landscape. So that when future generations are writing the history of these times, they will note the barbarism of widespread animal consumption, but they will also see videos like this one and realize that good people fought the good fight and made a difference.

Tragedy in Georgia

On January 13, there was another devastating factory farm fire, this one in Norman Park, Georgia. Death tolls vary, but most sources pin the death toll at approximately 12,100 chickens perishing in the horrible flames that swept through a facility owned by International Poultry Breeders. Most of the chickens who were burned alive were still young chicks. Firefighters believe the fire started due to a faulty heating system in the building.

These sorts of incidents have become far too common in factory farms. They generate puny headlines in newspapers (if at all), and the stories often focus on the challenges the farmers have to confront after losing so many animals, rather than the horrors experienced by these sentient beings in the last moments of their short and violent lives.

See what I mean in the following passage, from the report by local news station, WALB Channel 10:

Firefighters... say the deaths of the chicks is a substantial loss to the company, and the cost to build a replacement house is around $100,000. But they have full confidence they'll recover, despite the economic blow. International Poultry Breeders has five other chicken houses on the site.

The online source Claims Journal.com, a prominent website of the insurance industry in the United States, echoed the tone of WALB's coverage, only it placed the death toll at 17,000. As Claims Journal.com noted:

Rockingham County Fire and Rescue assistant fire marshal Mike Armstrong says most of the 4-week-old chickens died from smoke inhalation. Armstrong says the fire inside the steel-framed structure was mostly out when firefighters arrived.

And what of the 12,000 - or was it 17,000? - precious beings whose lives were cut short in the most excruciatingly painful way imaginable? Where are their obituaries? How will their truly fleeting drop from the egg to the inferno be remembered, if at all? Are they to be reduced to statistics? Figures in profit and loss statements? Who is going to remember their lives? Why did they have to be robbed of the opportunity to live their lives; to run outside on a warm spring day; get to know each other; to savour a pleasant Sunday with other chickens? Hell, we don't even know if 12,000 died, or 12,100 died, or 17,000 died. All three figures were used in the press coverage of the tragedy. Sadly, these figures have been reduced to meaningless number crunching. Stats. Miles to Pluto.

The time has come for us to stop viewing animals as commodities. It is this same mindset that has led to the construction of factory farms, which are nothing more than efficient mass-killing machines. Imagine how you would feel if these were your children who died the searing hot flames.

Morbid though it may seem, it is only by thinking in those terms that we are able to feel the sorrow of this event and develop a real, heartfelt empathy toward these chickens. For so long, I was one of these types who devoured chicken without even contemplating these matters. I can't bring back those lives I destroyed, and I'll regret that until the day I die. What I can do - what we can all do - is learn the truth about how horribly these chickens suffer. And we can vow that we will do everything we can to transform these "miles to Pluto" - 12,000, 12,100, 17,000 - into individual beings with a purpose and a life and dignity.

This is the key to achieving a more compassionate society, one that does not tolerate the mass murder of animals.

Stories of Hope (Dec. 6): Helping Chickens Stay Warm

Chickens are on the receiving end of the worst brutality imaginable. They are packed into dark spaces, pushed together in crowds of tens of thousands, forced to gain weight faster than they're meant to (usually twice as fast as normal) and far beyond their normal weight level. As the group Compassion in World Farming noted: "The birds are pushed to reach their slaughter weight in just forty days." (Source) Once they are ready to be slaughtered, they end up dying in a cold and impersonal assembly-line fashion. These creatures - capable of forming bonds, capable of enjoying sunny days and beautiful grassy fields... sentient beings with feelings and emotions - end up living short lives that end in the most brutal way imaginable. Once they're dead, they end up statistics, food on dinner plates, bones in the garbage.

But some human beings are determined to help these beautiful creatures. In England, there's a group of volunteers that does something quite extraordinary. These kind-hearted folks knit sweaters for chickens that have been rescued from commercial farms. Since the summer, compassionate animal lovers have knit more than 100 sweaters for chickens. Due to the awful living conditions in chicken farms, many of these poor birds end up losing a lot of their feathers, which makes them especially vulnerable to the cold weather. The knitters are from Hebben Bridge, West Yorkshire, and they're united in the belief that these extraordinary chickens deserve to live lives of dignity and comfort. To that end, they've held "knit-ins" - in which they make numerous sweaters for the rescued chickens. As organizer Amy Leader put it: "In the winter, the hens need a little bit of help keeping warm." She added that finding volunteers has actually been quite easy. "Everyone went mad for it and wanted to do it straight away." (Source)

The knit-ins will continue through the winter and Leader predicts they will become a tradition in the UK. In fact, with Christmas approaching, some of the knitters are making festive outfits for the featherless chickens. "Maybe we can make little Santa hats for them," said Leader. "The possibilities are endless."

Proof again - as if we need more - that there are plenty of wonderful people out there who want to help - not hurt - our animal friends. If this isn't what the spirit of Christmas is all about, then what is?

Two Tragedies Involving the Treatment of Chickens and Eggs

Chickens are beautiful animals. They're smart. They know math (more math than a fair number of human beings). They bond with their parents, brothers and sisters, and offspring. And each one is special and has a unique way of doing things.

Chickens also experience the worst treatment of any factory farm animals.

Above, I have posted a video by Mercy For Animals (MFA) showing the treatment of chickens at Ohio Fresh Eggs in Croton, Ohio. It is gory. It is heartbreaking. It shows chickens experiencing the worst treatment imaginable. And it is Standard Operating Procedure in chicken farms across the country.

It is sad to see these beautiful animals being violently de-beaked. It is sadder to see them bleeding and hurt and developing terrible sores from their ghastly treatment. But the saddest thing of all is the look of resignation on their faces. They are the living dead. They've given up on life. They are so used to being packed in together like so many ruthlessly exploited commodities.

My friends, it is so, so painful to watch.

If you don't believe this is how chickens are treated in farm after farm after farm across North America, do yourself a favor: Watch MFA's video investigation of the Weaver Brothers Egg Farm in Ohio. Or watch this video by East Bay Animal Advocates of a California Egg Farm. Watch this video by Compassion Over Killing shot at multiple egg farms. Watch this Associated Press video on the horrible treatment of baby chicks.

I could go on and on and on. You get the picture.

By the way, last month I wrote a column for The Waterloo Region Record about factory farm fires that generated angry letters to the editor and a counterpoint column. Interestingly, not a single one of these people who didn't like me pointing out how ghastly and immoral it is that tens of thousands of animals die horrific deaths in factory fires each year in Canada offered a direct challenge to my assertions.

When confronted with the truth, foes of animal rights seldom challenge the truth. More typically, they lash out at the messenger or try to portray animal rights advocates as nut cases or enemies of farmers. It's a load of garbage. And it's a fallacy. We're not the enemies of farmers. We are opposed to anyone who abuses and mistreats animals. And we are determined to use our voices to help the voiceless, no matter what the cost.

Yesterday, a fire at a factory farm in Abbotsford, British Columbia killed 32,000 broiler chickens. Add that to the almost 80,000 animals who have already perished in farm fires in Canada since January 2010 and now you are looking at MORE THAN 100,000 ANIMALS WHO HAVE DIED IN FARM FIRES IN 2010 ALONE (and we're only in June, people). See the article on the Abbotsford fire here, complete with a video.

There will always be men and women who will do their damnedest to justify this sorry state of affairs. They are the heirs of the same inhumane worldview of the men and women who defended slavery in the 19th Century. History has left slavery's defender's in the dust. In time, History will do the same to those who seek to justify the terrible treatment of factory farm animals.

My Latest Column on Factory Farm Fires in Canada

I write a regular column for the Waterloo Region Record and this week's column is on a rash of disturbing factory farm fires here in Canada. Click here to read the article. In it, I discuss the sizable number of animals who have died the most horrific deaths imaginable in barn blazes. Borrowing figures from the wonderful folks at Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals (CETFA), I point out that just since January of this year, 78,466 animals have died in Canadian barn fires.

Those numbers are appalling. And each one represents a living, breathing, sentient being - a pig, a chicken, a cow, sometimes other farm animals - who died in the most horrifying way imaginable, burning alive. The image I use above on this Blog Entry is of sows who burned to death in gestation crates in a factory farm fire. This is an issue that should be causing outrage. Hopefully, it will also prompt some Canadians - and other people - to reconsider their omnivore diets. Eating animals simply is not worth the devastating toll and the excruciating pain it causes these beautiful creatures. A vegan diet is much more consistent with a nonviolent political philosophy.

Fighting the Good Fight: United Poultry Concern

Chickens live in the most appalling conditions imaginable.

At hatcheries, male chicks are gassed or crushed on conveyor belt machines by the thousands and thousands. At many facilities, egg-laying hens are placed inside of cramped battery cages where they can hardly move. In cage-free operations, hens live in darkness and shit all over each other and never get fresh air. It is not unusual for some of the larger plants to squeeze 20,000 hens into cage-free facilities, and each one of these animals will eventually be slaughtered; one huge outfit in Virginia has put 48,000 birds in a cage-free facility. Hens are de-beaked and that process is incredibly painful. Whether egg-laying hens are caged or not, they live tragic, short, hellish lives and they're all ultimately murdered by human beings.

In short, chickens raised for human consumption - so people can devour meat which they don't need to survive - live truly nightmarish existences. And understand this: There is no "compassionate" alternative. Murder is murder. And all meat amounts to murder.

Thank God United Poultry Concerns (UPC) is fighting the good fight and lobbying for the humane treatment of chickens. UPC is also encouraging the public to go vegan. The wonderful folks at UPC understand that if you reduce demand, you curtail the widespread and systematic abuse of chickens in poultry farms. UPC runs a large sanctuary in Virginia where they provide a loving home for all kinds of domestic fowl, including ducks, turkeys, pheasants and chickens. They also publish a wonderful booklet titled Life Can Be Beautiful - Go Vegan! (click here to see it in PDF format). At one point, the booklet quotes a former Tyson slaughterhouse worker: "We changed our diet. We couldn't look at a piece of meat anymore without seeing the sad, tortured face that was attached to it sometime in the past."

If you get a chance, visit UPC's Website. Find out what they're doing. If you can contribute a little to their cause, please do so. This is just one of many groups fighting the good fight for animals. Sometimes the struggle seems hopeless. But as long as good people refuse to compromise or surrender on the issue of animal rights, there will always be hope.

Time for some Pie in the Sky... With Vegan Ice Cream on Top! (Well, maybe not... let's face it... vegan ice cream sucks...)

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is generating a lot of controversy as a result of its decision to make public undercover video footage shot inside of America's two largest egg farms. Apparently, the film shows "workers slamming chickens into metal bins and dead animals littering cages." (Source) The footage was shot secretly inside of facilities belonging to Rose Acre Farms and Rembrandt Enterprises, both located in Iowa.

The video footage has sparked a war of words between HSUS and the food industry. Unfortunately, the debate has nothing to do with the rights of the hens. As HSUS President Wayne Pacelle announced at a news conference in Des Moines yesterday: "We're not asking for an end to the confinements of animals in buildings. We're asking they not be crammed into cages and crates barely larger than their bodies." (Source)

He went on to say: "Those same producers are producing cage-free eggs by the millions to account for the growing demand for these products. We're not talking about a pie-in-the-sky alternative." (Source)

Well, I say: Let's talk about pie-in-the-sky alternatives. These puny animal welfare measures do nothing but provide short-term feel-good solutions to lull food consumers back into a state of denial. How is it going to change the harsh conditions and rampant abuses in these egg-laying facilities to switch from caged hens to cage-free hens? How will that help one iota? Will it stop workers from slamming the chickens? Will it make life better for the chickens? Will they be anything other than slaves, forced to lay eggs for human beings who don't need eggs to survive?

Nobody talks about pie-in-the-sky alternatives anymore. People are too focused on pragmatic solutions. But if nobody aims high, great change will never come. In 1850, abolitionism was about as "pie in the sky" as you can get. The handful of brave men and women who wanted to free African Americans from bondage in the middle of the 19th Century faced persecution, ostracism, even death. And they did NOT have the press or courts or politicians on their side.

But they had something far more powerful going for them: They had right on their side. They had justice on their side. And these are far more than simple abstractions...

Use that damning video footage for something far more meaningful than a debate over caged versus cage-free eggs. Use it to show the beauty of birds that bond with their parents and offspring, understand mathematics, enjoy a day out in the sun as much of the rest of us, and have a right to live full and peaceful lives.

Pie in the sky? Sure. Right and just? Yes.

For Chickens, "Cage-Free" is Nothing to Write Home About

There was a good column in the Des Moines Register (Iowa) today about "cage-free" eggs. Have a look at it, if you get a chance. It draws attention to the fallacy that chickens are somehow better off in a cage-free setting. On the contrary, hens who lay cage-free eggs are still cramped together. They use the bathroom all over the place (which inevitably gets on the eggs). They peck each other. The atmosphere is still dark and unpleasant and traumatic for them.

According to the article, the sandwich chain Subway announced on March 22 that they won't be using care-free eggs in any of their food anymore, due to the increasingly negative reputation of the method. Various animal welfare groups have pointed out that chickens are often far more comfortable in cages than when they're free to wander with countless numbers of their own in tight, dark spaces. Apparently, the cage method is actually more humane. The article also cites an Arizona Republic columnist, Linda Valdez, who concluded that chickens in facilities with cages are much better off than she expected.

Animal welfare groups can debate these issues until they're blue in the face. The truth is, the most humane approach to this issue is to go vegan and stop eating eggs completely.

Short of that, it is encouraging that these feel-good terms like "cage-free," "free-range," "conscientious carnivore," etc., are being called into question. People should see the fallacy of these warm-and-fuzzy terms. They were invented to make omnivores feel better. But when you get right down to it, they don't mean much. In the last analysis, animals still suffer regardless and their brutally short lives end just as ultra-violently.

It is time - long past time - to start talking about their rights.

More Victims of the Immoral Factory Farm System

Days ago, there was a horrible fire at the Ohio Fresh Eggs company near Marseilles, Ohio, that resulted in the deaths of 250,000 chickens. (Source) That's pretty staggering when you think about it - a quarter of million. It is difficult for me to wrap my head around those numbers.

Many of the chickens died in the blaze, although a substantial number were also euthanized after the fire to put them out of their misery.

250,000

What is even more troubling is that mass animal deaths as a result of farm fires is a fairly regular occurrence. Here in Canada, pigs are often the victims of blazes.

It was almost precisely two years ago that 7,000 pigs perished in a fire in a barn at a Manitoba Hutterite community. (Source)

In January 2009, a barn fire near Hadashville, Manitoba, killed 900 hogs. (Source) Later that month, in east-central Saskatchewan, a blaze that swept through four large hog barns killed all of the animals inside. (Source) In December 2009, 1200 pigs died in a barn fire near St. Catharines, Ontario. Around the same time, 800 pigs perished in flames at a farm outside of Stratford, Ontario. (Source)

And at Wingham, Ontario, earlier this month, 5,000 pigs died in a raging inferno. (Source)

All of these tragedies had something in common: They were avoidable.

In addition to being scenes of horrific slaughter, factory farms are also tinderboxes full of flammable materials. And the animals inside of their walls have no rights. They're regarded as property. When they burn to death, their only obituary is typically a short article buried inside of a newspaper.

250,000... 900... 7,000... 1200... 5,000... 800...

It's all miles to the moon. And the victims of these fires are mere commodities in the eyes of most people.... Nothing more than numbers for the insurance company.

Imagine the final moment for those quarter of a million hens or those 7,000 pigs. All they knew was the ghastly terror of fire closing in on them, burning them to death - one of the most excruciatingly awful ways to die.

How many more reasons do we need to abolish the factory farm system? And how much longer do we have to wait until this system of mass, assembly line murder is finally done away with?

Chickens Can See the World Better Than Human Beings - Literally!

This just in: Chickens can actually see colours better than human beings! This startling discovery was made at the University of Washington's School of Medicine in St. Louis. Dr. Joseph C. Corbo, assistant professor of pathology, immunology and genetics and a lead investigator in this case noted: "Based on this study, birds have certainly one-upped us in several ways in terms of colour vision. Colour receptor organization in the chicken retina greatly exceeds that seen in most other retinas and certainly that in most mammalian retinas." (Source) The eye tests will continue. Some may wonder why this is an important finding. Well, we now know that chickens: 1) learn math at an early age, while they're still chicks; 2) can see the world better than we human beings. I have a feeling we are only just beginning to understand the magnificence and intelligence of these birds. The more studies about the intelligence and abilities of chickens that are done, the better. Scholarly findings will verify what animal rights activists have been saying all along: These are incredible birds. Rather than eating them, we ought to live live with them and learn from them.

Yet Another Sign of Animal Intelligence: Chickens can count

This just in: In a three-way study between two Italian universities, the University of Padua and the University of Trento, and a Canadian university, the University of Saskatchewan, scientists have discovered that chickens have the ability to count. Study leader Lucia Regolin elaborated on the significance of the study:

We were able to train chicks to peck at either the forth or sixth hole in a series of 16. Our results indicate for the first time that a disposition to count from left to right exists in non-human, non-linguistic species. The fact that they were chicks supports the theory that such a disposition is apparent very early in development. (Source)

This is the kind of animal testing I like, because it shows what animal rights activists have been arguing for a long time: animals are intelligent, and chickens are no exception. If anything, we humans have been underestimating the intelligence and abilities of chickens for years. Now there is compelling evidence to show that chickens, from a very young age, learn to count exactly the same way human beings do.

In fact, the scientific community has added weight and legitimacy to these claims. As the website/Blog for Scienceray (dubbed, "All that is Science, Astronomy, Biology, Mathematics, Physics") pointed out last April:

Chickens are highly intelligent birds that have been traditionally underestimated, especially for their mental abilities. But now, it has now been confirmed by doctors and professors alike that their brilliant cognitive capacities match even those of mammals and primates. Research has indeed proved that they lead very complex lives which is now very clear.

These graceful birds exist in stable social groups and can recognize one other from their facial features. Apparently they have 24 distinct cries that communicate a wealth of information to one other. These include, separate alarm calls depending on whether a predator is travelling by land or sea. They are also brilliant at solving problems, just like monkeys.

Perhaps most persuasive is the chicken’s intriguing ability to understand that an object, when taken away and hidden, nevertheless continues to exist which is beyond the capacity of young children. They display sophisticated social behaviour which is what the act of pecking is all about. Chickens can recognize more than a hundred other chickens and remember them too. They also have more than thirty types of vocalizations.

The term “bird brains” can really be regarded as a compliment because chickens have proven that they can do things that people thought they just couldn’t! And terms like being “scared like a chicken” is also falsely depicted as this is in fact just a very natural motherly instinct for them to flap their wings to protect their hatching chicks! There are in fact a lot of hidden depths in chickens which we all need to make an effort to understand. They are very expressive and emotional as well. (Read the full post here.)