Chicken Factories spreading suffering to animals, humans alike: PETA

New Delhi, Apr 25 (UNI) A People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals study has brought to light the ill-effects of in-humane method of chicken and egg production on human health.

The report, 'Chicken Industry Paints Picture of Filth, Disease and Abuse' release here today, documented the scalding, starvation and mutilation of birds and revealed the potential for the spread of diseases like bird 'flu from such chickens to humans.

According to the World Health Organisation at least 91 people in seven countries had died from the H5N1 strain of bird flu since 2003 and Indian health officials had confirmed the bird flu outbreak among poultry in the Nandurbar district of Maharashtra last year.

Animal factories, such as broiler sheds and battery hen warehouses, virtually invited the virus to strike. Because of the intensive confinement of the animals, the deadly virus could spread like wildfire.

Humans who handled infected birds could catch bird flu, and experts feared that the virus would eventually mutate into a form that was transmissible from human to human, setting off a catastrophic worldwide pandemic.

Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Kanti Lal Bhuria had also issued a warning in March that avian flu virus could hit India imminently.

Because of the filthy and cramped conditions that chickens raised for meat and eggs were forced to endure, including being scalded to death in contaminated de-feathering tanks, diseases were rampant.

Antibiotics were routinely fed to healthy livestock and poultry to make them gain weight faster and to compensate for unsanitary living conditions. But even with the widespread use of drugs, dangerous and often life-threatening pathogens -- such as salmonella, listeria, campylobacter and E coli found in poultry populations -- sicken and even kill humans every year.

''The only certain way to stop such abuse of chickens and to safeguard our own health is to stop eating them,'' said PETA India Coordinator Rohini Kamath.

''Chickens are social, feeling birds who deserve basic respect.

Eating chickens and their eggs supports two industries whose common trademark is cruelty.'' MORE UNI