"Our lives end the day we become silent over the things that matter."
~Martin Luther Knig, Jr.
After playing with the baby goats a second time today, the chickens were out enjoying the unusually warm and sunny weather. It was late afternoon where the light can dazzle, shine and reflect like no other time of day.
Whenever I see chickens I think about the brutal conditions in commercial chicken farms and can visualize that conveyor belt full of baby chicks where inspectors are callously plucking them off and dumping them into the trash like they're objects instead of living creatures. After I posted this blog I came across the undercover investigation at Hy-Line Hathery that shows you the gruesome reality of the commercial egg industry. I saw it years ago, and can't watch more than a few seconds again. Some of images are burned into my memory. If you eat commercial eggs, the right thing to do is know the truth behind how they get to the grocery store.
Whenever I see chickens I think about the brutal conditions in commercial chicken farms and can visualize that conveyor belt full of baby chicks where inspectors are callously plucking them off and dumping them into the trash like they're objects instead of living creatures. After I posted this blog I came across the undercover investigation at Hy-Line Hathery that shows you the gruesome reality of the commercial egg industry. I saw it years ago, and can't watch more than a few seconds again. Some of images are burned into my memory. If you eat commercial eggs, the right thing to do is know the truth behind how they get to the grocery store.
According to a new study called The Intelligent Hen sponsored by the Happy Egg Company, chickens may be brighter than young children in numeracy and basic skills. The study was co- authored by Christine Nicol, professor of animal welfare at Bristol University, and Robbie L’Anson-Price. Robbie's background is in zoology and conservation with special interest in animal behavior.
Writer Radhika Sanghani explains more about the study in a June 2013 article. "Hens are capable of mathematical reasoning and logic, including numeracy, self-control and even basic structural engineering, following research. Traits such as these are normally only shown in children above the age of four, but the domesticated birds have an ability to empathize, a sophisticated theory of mind and plan ahead."
"The domesticated chicken is something of a phenomenon," Nicols told The Times: "Studies over the past 20 years have revealed their finely honed sensory capacities, their ability to think, draw inferences, apply logic and plan ahead." Nicol explains the animal is capable of distinguishing numbers up to five and is familiar with transitive inference - the idea in logic that, if A is greater than B, and B is greater than C, then A is greater than C." FULL ARTICLE
"The domesticated chicken is something of a phenomenon," Nicols told The Times: "Studies over the past 20 years have revealed their finely honed sensory capacities, their ability to think, draw inferences, apply logic and plan ahead." Nicol explains the animal is capable of distinguishing numbers up to five and is familiar with transitive inference - the idea in logic that, if A is greater than B, and B is greater than C, then A is greater than C." FULL ARTICLE
In a good review of this study, counter points are made in an article called How the Intelligent Hen Study Fails Chickens written by Robert Grillo, posted in http://freefromharm.org/.
"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. Not surprising, of course, considering the absolutely abysmal and distorted perception our society perpetuates about chickens today. And yet the attitude of surprise that surrounds such studies and the reaction to them reveals a very powerful cultural distortion in itself — that chickens are essentially stupid.
Overall most animal protection advocates view the findings of this or any other study that elevates our understanding of chickens as a hopeful sign that attitudes about these birds are finally changing for the better which must eventually translate into better treatment. So what’s the problem here?
For one thing, consider the fact that the Happy Egg Co., which was the subject of a major VIVA undercover animal cruelty investigation, sponsored the University of Bristol Intelligent Hen Study (a very official-sounding title) to “inform range and enrichment design on its farms.” To me this strongly suggests that the overall intention of the study is narrowly focused on how to improve the welfare of hens already bred to produce eggs on commercial farms. Yet, by studying them under the very conditions that inhibit their ability to express their true nature, the study is flawed by its very design and completely ignores how the commodification of chickens sabotages any serious attempt to understand their intelligence."
Overall most animal protection advocates view the findings of this or any other study that elevates our understanding of chickens as a hopeful sign that attitudes about these birds are finally changing for the better which must eventually translate into better treatment. So what’s the problem here?
For one thing, consider the fact that the Happy Egg Co., which was the subject of a major VIVA undercover animal cruelty investigation, sponsored the University of Bristol Intelligent Hen Study (a very official-sounding title) to “inform range and enrichment design on its farms.” To me this strongly suggests that the overall intention of the study is narrowly focused on how to improve the welfare of hens already bred to produce eggs on commercial farms. Yet, by studying them under the very conditions that inhibit their ability to express their true nature, the study is flawed by its very design and completely ignores how the commodification of chickens sabotages any serious attempt to understand their intelligence."
"Christine Nicol, said the findings point to “the importance of providing these amazing creatures with the environment that enables them to live out their natural instincts.” However, if this statement has any meaning whatsoever, it most certainly means that raising chickens for commercial purposes — a purpose that has nothing to do with expressing their natural inclinations — is in direct conflict with an “environment that enables them to live out their natural instincts” since even so-called humane farms systematically deny them all or most of the conditions under which they could perform their natural behavior." READ FULL COUNTER ARTICLE
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