Chickens are kept in battery cages, where each bird gets space equal to a sheet of paper.
Highlights
- PETA video reveals cruel treatment of chickens in hatcheries across India
- NDTV visits four poultry farms in Haryana
- Tours reveal deplorable state of hens and chickens bred for consumption
Animal rights activist PETA has recently released a video that reveals the cruel treatment given to chicks and chickens at hatcheries across India. The video "From Shell to Hell" says male chicks and the weak ones are killed instantly through various gruesome processes.
NDTV managed to do a reality check at four poultry farms of Haryana, despite wary owners who insisted on selective, guided tours. At one poultry farm, NDTV found weak baby chicks kept in plastic containers, where they eventually die. Those that live are thrown nearby in farm land, along with eggs that have gone bad. Children from poor families wait at the fringes, accompanied by neighbourhood dogs, all eager to scavenge a meal.
"We come here to take the eggs," said one of the children. They say they don't know that the eggs are not meant for human consumption. "We take at least 4 eggs daily and eat them," the child adds.
The condition of the hens is no different. On an average, they live for two years, confined in "battery cages". Banned in California in the US, where they were invented, and in European Union, battery cages are contraptions in which four hens share space. Each get less space than an ordinary sheet of paper - where they can't stand properly or spread their wings.
At one of the poultry farms, Ambika Nijjar, activist and legal advisor to People For Animals, said she was having difficulty speaking because of the smell of ammonia. "There is just so much fecal matter... In this tiny cage they have four birds and these four birds spend over two years like this, laying eggs until they are culled'.
Keggfarms is the only company in India that has refused to use battery cages on ethical grounds. Its chairman Vinod Kapur said, "When man seems to feel that this earth was only made for his goals and others can take a back seat... that is an ideological problem."
The matter of the cruel treatment given to chickens and baby chicks is currently in Delhi High Court. The Supreme Court has also taken note of the issue asking the government to frame rules about poultry farming.