Extreme Cruelty Exposed At New England's Largest Egg Farm...

A new undercover investigation reveals shocking mistreatment of animals at Quality Eggs of New England, New England's largest egg farm. The investigation took place at the Turner, Maine facility in December of 2008. Over the next couple of months an investigator working for Mercy for Animals gathered video footage that exposes the extreme cruelty these animals endure every day of their lives. It depicts rampant animal abuse as well as squalid conditions.

The footage shows rotting carcasses in cages with hens who are still laying eggs for human consumption. It documents workers and managers throwing live birds into trash cans to be crushed to death by other birds. Many hens suffer painful injuries and never recieve veterinary care. Workers at QENE kick the animals into the manure pits below the battery-cages, where hens either drown in liquid waste or die slow deaths of starvation or sickness.

From the Investigator's Diary:

"At Quality Egg of New England, the wire cages were stacked three rows high, typically with four to six birds per cage.

The cages were each about 16 inches wide and long and 20 inches deep.

All of the chickens were debeaked and many had developed neuromas – painful tumors on the remaining parts of their beaks caused by the debeaking process"


Animal Welfare Experts Condemn QENE
There is a long list of veterinarians and animal welfare experts who are condemning this facility for its terrible conditions. Dr. Temple Grandin, an adviser to the USDA and a world-renowned expert on farmed-animal welfare, said "The place is a filthy, disgusting mess and very poorly maintained. The chickens look awful as well." MFA's list of expert statements contains at least 7 other animal welfare experts condemning QENE.

What can you do?
With the help of Compassion Over Killing, Mercy for Animals has submitted a petittion to the District Attorney urging their office to hold the egg factory farm accountable for voilations of Maine's anti-cruelty laws. As we all know, these sorts of legal actions rarely result in real change for the animals. The American legal system simply does not value the suffering of animals. Animals killed for food are mostly exempt from any animal welfare protections.

The best thing anyone can do to help the hens in factory farms is to simply not eat eggs. Each eggs represents somewhere around 25 or 30 hours of intense suffering. Every dollar we spend is a vote and buying eggs means we're voting for animal abuse. They're not getting any of my money!

http://www.care2.com/causes/animal-welfare/blog/new-undercover-inve...