Odracirys

Yesterday, while on a drive, I got behind a truck and took this picture. (During a roughly half-hour period on the road, I came across three more such trucks.) I could smell the truck from so close, and the smell was not good. These chickens were dirty and lame, unable to stand up even if they had the room to do so. Some were throwing their legs around, attempting to stand. I wondered what it must be like for them to see the outside world for the first time in their lives. Of course, there is also the heat and the wind (blowing feathers from the truck as it drove), but the outdoors, even if from behind bars, may have excited them a bit. Who knows what they would find in this whole new world that they had not known even an hour earlier? Maybe their lives would change for the better. Well, that did not pan out. As I kept driving straight, the truck turned right...into a processing plant with a sign boasting "Premium Fresh Young Chicken". Well, that was their glimps...

Scientific Sadism This just in!  Existing forever on the verge of starvation doesn't help to prolong your life. http://health.heraldtribune.com/2012/08/30/severe-diet-doesnt-prolong-life-at-least-in-monkeys/ "For 25 years, the rhesus monkeys were kept semistarved, lean and hungry. The males’ weights were so low they were the equivalent of a 6-foot-tall man who tipped the scales at just 120 to 133 pounds." However, the study failed.  Starved rhesus monkeys didn't live longer than their (non-obese) well-fed counterparts.  Still, "The study is continuing until the youngest monkeys are 22 years old. While the data pretty much rule out any notion that the low-calorie diet will increase average lifespans, there still is a chance that the study might find that the diet increases the animals’ maximum lifespan" , said Julie A. Mattison So, they failed at their experiment, but decided to continue to ruin the lives of more monkeys just to see what mi...

Drunken man turns off power on poultry farm, causes death of 70,000 chickens http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/28/13531163-sheriff-drunken-man-turns-off-power-on-poultry-farm-causes-death-of-70000-chickens Here is an excerpt from the article: "Shelton was arrested and booked into jail on charges of second-degree burglary, trespass and malicious destruction of property. The property owner discovered the dead chickens Saturday morning. He told investigators that without power, the chickens will begin to die within 15 minutes. The birds, which were due to be delivered to a local processing plant the following day, were valued at $20,000. Allen Farms, which was going to process the birds, estimated its loss at $220,000, said sheriff's Chief Deputy Gary Baker." This article is disturbing on many levels.  The first is the fact that around 70,000 chickens died.  But that's not the worst part.  You see, they were going to die the next day anyway, most likely in...