Over 300 million hens in the U. S. are confined to battery cages small wire cages stacked row by row one on top of each other. 4 hens are packed into a cage that is only 16 inches wide they suffer from feather loss, bruises, and cuts from constantly rubbing against the wire cages. Because the hens are confined they get very restless and bored so to avoid excessive pecking all hens have part of their beaks cut off. De-beaking is painful. They have to cut through the bone, cartilage and soft tissue.

Laying almost 300 eggs a year is taxing on the mother hens fragile bodies. They suffer from many diseases such as fatty liver syndrome, cage layer fatigue, being egg bound and osteoporosis. Fatty liver syndrome is caused by their liver cells having to work overtime to produce the protein and fat for the egg yolk. This causes an excess built up of fat in the liver. Cage layer fatigue is when the hens become so tired that they can just not function anymore. so weak that they can now longer pass another egg. Many also suffer heart attacks from the stress and preasure of being confined to small cages and being forced to lay eggs.

After one year in producing eggs the hens get to sick to produce anymore and are classified as ‘spent hens.’ Since these hens are useless they are sent to slaughterhouses and are used for low grade chicken where it is shredded to hide the bruises and wounds in its flesh. Other spent hens are put into the “jet pro” system to grind the spent hens into low grade animal feed. Other hens are force molted. The hens are starved and kept in the dark without water. This shocks their bodies into another egg laying cycle although the hens may loose more than 25% of their body weight and 5% to 10% die.

Millions of male chicks are killed each year because they are useless to the egg farmer. The male chicks are of a breed that is engineered for maximum egg laying not for meat so they are are of absolutely no value. They are discarded on the day they are born. They are killed the most economic way usually being thrown in trash cans where they are suffocated or crushed. A lot of male chicks are are ground up alive. Even after 20 seconds there is only partial damage to them and they are still conscience with half broken skulls. Others are dismembered by machines taking them out to the trash.