Scientific researchers are heralded in our culture as the saviors of humankind, reinforcing an ancient myth in which the “lesser animals” are elevated as martyrs for their “sacrifice” in serving READ ON
Eggs
The Science of Delivering Drugs through Chicken Eggs?
Backyard Chickens: Expanding Our Understanding of ‘Harm’
Backyard chicken keepers often describe their relationship with their chickens as “symbiotic.” They provide them with a great life and in return their chickens provide them with eggs. There are READ ON
Salmonella: Blame the Hatcheries, Not the Chickens
I’ve seen a lot of media coverage lately about salmonella and backyard chickens. The Center for Disease Control has issued specific guidelines for backyard chicken keepers for avoiding salmonella, claiming READ ON
Overcoming Our ‘Egg-Industry’ View of Chickens
As someone who rescues, raises and advocates on behalf of chickens, one of the biggest challenges I face is getting people to see the chicken BEFORE the egg. Even many READ ON
Sweet Pea: The Life of an Egg Laying Chicken
Some of you may recall that our wonderful hen Sweet Pea needed to have exploratory surgery in March to determine the cause of a large and growing mass in her READ ON
How the Intelligent Hen Study Fails Chickens
There’s a lot of buzz in the animal protection movement about a new chicken intelligence study that, once again, maintains that chickens are even more intelligent than we once thought. READ ON
Backyard Chickens in Peril
The following is a letter I wrote and sent today to the Goodman Community Center in Madison, Wisconsin after discovering a small flock of backyard chickens behind the building. The READ ON
Debeaking Video Shows Standard Practice on Free Range Egg Farms
In addition to being severely underweight and anemic, suffering a severe biting mite infestation, drooping her head and keeping her eyes closed, Lucinda exhibits a disfiguring beak deformity that is READ ON
Lucinda, Latest Chicken Rescue Needs Urgent Medical Attention
Our heroine, Melissa Summer Pena, rescued Lucinda today from Chicago Animal Control and Care (a kill shelter), describing her as the sickest looking bird she’s seen. In addition to being READ ON
Chicken Rescuer Says Hens from New Colony Cages as Damaged as Those from Battery Cages
My personal opinion and that of people I know who have rescued enriched colony caged hens is that there is no difference in health between the battery and colony caged READ ON
The Backyard Chess Game: Dogs, Chickens and Egg Fixations
Spend enough time reading about the quotidian tribulations of poultry proprietors and you quickly learn about the centrality of violence in chicken ownership. In point of fact the chickens, so READ ON
Beyond Eggs: Why I Keep Backyard Chickens
People often ask me why I have chickens. “Is it for the eggs?,” they ask. Now of course, what this question implies is that there is no other value to READ ON
The Story of an Egg Documentary is Without a Yolk
The Story of an Egg is a short documentary that claims “we need a lexicon of sustainability.” Has a nice ring to it, right? By using factory farming as a READ ON
Angelica: The Thanksgiving Day Hen
This short video chronicles the life of Angelica, a sweet little hen rescued on Thanksgiving Day. Free from Harm director Robert Grillo explains the rescue. the care Angelica received and READ ON
Egg Facts: What the Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know
Seeing backyard hens frolicking in the grass looks wonderful on the surface. Yet, beyond the surface lies the source of virtually all commercially raised chickens today: the industrial scale hatcheries READ ON
Doris the Hen and the 50-Million-Year-Old Legacy of Motherhood
Lovely and elegant Doris pictured here is one of four adopted hens. She had major surgery over a year ago to save her life. The surgery consisted of removing her READ ON
Hatcheries Ship Male Chicks as Packing Material
Mark Bekoff of Psychology Today covers a story reported on by Karen Davis of United Poultry Concerns exposing hatcheries that use baby male chicks as packaging filler in shipments of READ ON
Doris the Hen’s Amazing Recovery and What Most Don’t Know about Eggs
Can we honestly say that eggs are “humane” simply by evaluating the conditions under which the hens are raised? I don’t care whether they are labeled “pasture raised,” “organic,” or READ ON
Organic Egg Standards: What Are They?
Many “organic” operators provide only tiny enclosed porches, with roofs and concrete or wood flooring, yet call these structures “the outdoors,” says Cornucopia. “Many of the porches represent just 3 READ ON
Black Eagle Farm: Story of an Organic Egg Scam
Black Eagle Farm is an operation owned by Dr. Ralph Glatt in Piney River, Nelson County, Virginia. Located in central Virginia 100 miles from Richmond and 130 miles from Washington, READ ON
