The Straits Times
STForum Online
Sep 11, 2009
Overcrowding leads chickens to disregard pecking order and become aggressive
I REFER to Wednesday's report, 'Fed pricey herb, to strains of Mozart'.
Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) commends the farm owner's attempt to create a less stressful atmosphere for the chickens. However, we wish to highlight that the environment in which the chickens are housed still appears far from ideal.
From the photograph, it is clear that there is significant overcrowding. This is incredibly stressful for chickens. In the wild, chicken flocks have hierarchical systems and a strict 'pecking order', with some birds dominant over others. However, this only works for flocks of up to 90 individuals. Studies have shown that in groups any larger than this, the pecking order breaks down, resulting in extreme aggression.
Furthermore, chickens become agitated if they cannot act on their natural instincts. In the wild, they feed by scratching in the earth for worms and insects. They enjoy stretching their wings, basking in the sun and having dirt baths. They like to roost in lower branches of trees. These are natural needs of chickens, stemming from their forest bird ancestors.
On today's modern farms, all this is usually taken away from them. The chickens even have no choice over what they eat, fed an unnatural concoction of food. They will probably never see daylight, until the day they are taken to slaughter.
It is revealing that Mr Kwek Theng Swee mentions that the music calms the birds, acknowledging that conditions on the farm can be stressful. Indeed, considering the evidence above, the chickens are clearly in a highly stressful and unnatural environment.
Sadly, overcrowded, unnatural conditions are the norm on today's intensive factory farms, where animals are no longer treated as sentient beings, but more as meat, egg and milk 'machines'.
But it does not have to be this way, and more humane methods of farming are possible. For example, some farms in Brazil and China are participating in the Model Farm Project. This aims to establish an international network of viable and sustainable model farms, where the welfare of the animals is given high consideration.
Ultimately, it is high demand for cheap animal products that fuels the intensive farming of animals. Therefore, the responsibility falls on us as consumers to demand more humane methods of farming, if we wish to reduce the animals' suffering. We can do this by buying only free-range meat and eggs, and writing to supermarkets to request such products.
Consumers may also consider reducing their meat consumption, so the need to raise farm animals so intensively is reduced.
Acres hopes that farms in the region will move towards adopting farming methods which are more humane, such as those of the Model Farm Project, and that consumers will use their purchasing power to help reduce the suffering of farm animals.
Amy Corrigan (Ms)
Director, Cruelty-Free Living
Acres
