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Year of the Rooster: Annus Horribilis
It definitely wasn't a good year for
the chicken species. What should, according to the
Chinese lunar calendar, have been the Year of the
Rooster, turned into an Annus Horribilis for roosters,
hens and all of their flock.
As meat-eaters continue the trend of switching from
cow meat to chicken meat as a supposedly healthier
alternative, the number of chickens killed for food
worldwide keeps growing.
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During the period of the 'white meat revolution' (the 1990s)
there was an increase of approximately 1.3 billion chickens
killed yearly in food production worldwide, until by the
year 2000 the total number slaughtered (including hens used
for egg production and then killed) exceeded 40 billion.(1)
That's a staggering 90% of the total of 45 billion animals
killed for food worldwide in that year according to the
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).(2)
As with other 'food animals', these figures don't include
'backyard' slaughters (generally not reported), slaughters
in countries that have no reporting procedures in place,
and non-slaughter deaths (from disease, malnutrition, injury,
suffocation, stress, or other deadly factors associated
with animal farming).(3) In particular,
layer hens (hens used for egg production) experience the
highest rate of non-slaughter death, primarily because all
males are deliberately suffocated at birth.(4)
In Australia the trend of preferring chicken above cow
meat has resulted in a relentless marketing campaign by
Meat & Livestock Australia designed to lure consumers back
to beef. The Australian public have been bombarded for some
time by advertisements in both the printed and electronic
media and the coinciding publication of several studies
highlighting the supposed benefits of red meat. No blows
have been spared in this marketing strategy - children,
Hare Krishna devotees and vegetarians have all been used
as cannon fodder by the industry's propaganda machine.
In 2003 Casino (NSW) meat processors Bindaree Beef proposed
a national beef grading legislation as the only way to draw
back the high numbers of meat-eaters deserting the beef
market in favour of chicken. As the company's chairman,
John McDonald, remarked, "The neglect of the Australian
beef market for the last 30 years is a disgrace. In the
mid-1970s, Australians were eating almost 70kg per person
per year. By 2001 it had declined to about 33kg." (5)
By contrast the national consumption of chicken has grown
to an average of 35.1kg per person per year, chicken now
making up 39 per cent of Australia's total meat consumption.(6)
In October 2005 the South Australian government released
a plan aimed at trebling in size the state's chicken industry
over the next 10 years. Entitled The Poultry Meat in South
Australia - Strategic Directions 2005-2015, the plan estimates
the annual production in the industry will reach almost
$1 billion in 2015 - up from $325 million in 2005. The plan
also predicts: 90 million birds being "processed" in the
state each year (up from 40 million), South Australia to
produce more than 20% of the national production (up from
9% in 2005), $500 million worth of SA-produced chicken being
exported interstate in 2015 (more than 12 times the latest
figure of $40 million), and an increase of the meat yield
of each bird from 1.45kg to 1.7kg.(7)
Unfortunately, switching from cow meat to so-called white
meat (poultry and fish) is neither healthier nor (despite
what some pseudo-"vegetarians" might like to think) more
ethical. From the health point of view, white meat presents
more or less the same disadvantages as red meat - that is,
cholesterol, saturated fat, high protein content, no complex
carbohydrates and no fibre. From an ethical point of view,
white meat eaters actually increase the number of animals
killed for food, since most of the birds and fish species
which are eaten are much smaller than cows. Since a cow
yields 200 times the amount of flesh as a chicken,(8)
more animals must be killed to feed the same number of people
with chicken meat rather than cow meat.
As if all this were not enough, to top off the Annus Horribilis
for chickens in 2005 came the spread of avian flu and the
consequent "culling" of tens of millions of birds in an
attempt to control it. Avian or bird flu, technically known
as H5N1, is the type which can be deadly to humans - several
other strains only infect birds. Such a virus is suspected
to have caused the 1918-19 influenza pandemic which killed
about 40 million people worldwide - 1.5% of the world's
population at that time.(9) Subsequent
outbreaks in 1957 and 1968 originated from avian flu viruses
combined with human viruses.(10)
In 1997, the first ever bird flu outbreak in Hong Kong
caused the death and destruction of 1.5 million birds and
killed six people. It re-emerged in 2003 spreading across
Asia and killing more than 60 people. The strain has subsequently
been discovered in humans in Eastern Europe.(11)
In October 2005 the United Nations warned that a global
flu pandemic could kill as many as 150 million people if
the world fails to prepare for an expected mutation of the
bird flu virus enabling it to spread from human to human.(12)
The attempt to contain the disease and the consequent kill-at-any-cost-with-any-method
attitude towards chickens has brought to full visibility
the apparently inherent sadistic attitude of humans towards
animals, in particular so-called food animals. In the words
of Jordan Burke, communication manager of the World Society
for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), "The latest avian
flu outbreaks have seen chickens being beaten, buried alive,
poisoned, left in bins to die and even set on fire while
still alive. Sadly, culling is the most effective way to
contain such outbreaks. Yet there has been little debate
about how these animals, already confined to lives in misery
in intensive farming operations, have been callously disposed
of in the interest of public safety."(13)
"The extremely inhumane culling of infected birds",
Burke continues, "is yet another example on the global
tragedy that is industrial farming, which for many years
has represented a continual denial of the farm animal as
a living being with his or her own needs and nature."
"Worldwide, billions of animals on industrial farms
live in overcrowded and poorly ventilated environments -
prime conditions for disease. Despite factories being implicated
in the many repeated threats to public health and the overwhelming
animal cruelty involved, we seem all too eager to ignore
the issue of industrial animal agriculture."(14)
Pointing to the solution of this health and moral crisis,
Burke concludes by stating that "for the welfare of animals
and humans alike, it is time for effective legislation to
stop the expansion of factory farming and encourage humane
and sustainable forms of animal agriculture."(15)
Burke, however, like many other well-intentioned thinkers,
seems to overlook the fact that to feed the world on animal-derived
foods, a massive population of animals must be raised as
quickly and as cheaply as possible. These requirements on
a world scale simply cannot be met by so-called humane farming
methods, (that is, traditional or free-range methods). Practically
speaking, the raising of more than 52 billion animals (16)
- eight times the human population of the planet - simply
cannot be achieved with animal farming methods other than
intensive ones.
Could this latest health crisis, like mad cow disease a
few years ago, provide us with the incentive to look for
a real solution to the problem - something which may entail
questioning our addiction to animal foods and the possibility
of doing without them? No way! The word 'vegetarian' is
still taboo in our mainstream media and public spaces.
As an example, when bird flu fears in October 2005 sent
sales of chicken plummeting in some parts of Europe,(17)
tourists and locals in central Rome were handed free roast
chicken as part of a government drive to convince the public
that there is no health risk from avian flu.(18)
In the UK, the University of Cambridge announced its research
into genetically modified chickens as the key to wiping
out the threat of bird flu - this research into flu-resistant
transgenic birds being aided by the Roslin Institute in
Edinburgh, (in)famous for creating Dolly the sheep, the
world's first cloned animal.(19)
January 29, 2006 marked the beginning of the new Chinese
year, the Year of the Dog. Let's hope the canine species
is not going to suffer a year as tragic as the one the chickens
were subjected to in the Year of the Rooster. 
© Vegetarian Action February 2006
References
1. Davis, Karen, President, United Poultry
Concern. Published in 'Letters Page', Vegan Voice, No 9,
March - May 2002, p.16
2. Berriman, Mark, Fraser, Robert and French, Roger. 'Death
Worldwide' in New Vegetarian and Natural Health, Summer
2001/02, p.66
3. 'Animal Agriculture Claims 10 Billion Victims in 2003',
25/9/2003, www.farmusa.org
4. World Farm Animal Day 2004, 25/9/04, www.wfad.org
5. Max, 'To the Max!'. Vegan Voice, No 14, June - August
2003, p.21
6. William, Matt. 'Jobs boom - and it's thanks to chickens',
The Advertiser, 10/10/2005, p.7
7. Ibid.
8. World Farm Animal Day 2004, 25/9/04, www.wfad.org
9. Miles, Janelle. 'The biological tsunami', The Advertiser,
24/9/2005, p.69
10. Wheldon, Julie. 'Fear bird flu may kill 150m humans',
The Advertiser, 1/10/2005
11. 'A winged menace', The Advertiser, 19/10/2005, p.19
12. Arieff, Irwin. 'Bird flu could kill many millions',
The Age, 1/10/2005, p.17
13. Burke, Jordan. "Bird factory farms threaten morals as
well as health", The Advertiser, 25/10/2005, p.20
14. Ibid
15. Ibid
16. World Farm Animal Day 2004, 25/9/04, www.wfad.org
17. www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au, October 2005. Cited
in Vegan Voice, No 24, Dec 2005 - Feb 2006, p.37
18. www.news.com.au, October 2005. Cited in Vegan Voice,
No 24, Dec 2005 - Feb 2006, p.37,
19. 'GM key in bird flu fight', The Advertiser, 28/11/2005
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