Imagine how terrified the 80,000 chickens who were killed in the recent fire at Kofkoff Egg Farms in Lebanon must have been. They were trapped in a barn, unable to escape. All they could do was watch the flames approach. 

It’s too late to save these chickens, but there is a way to help other sentient birds like them: Go vegan. 

About 340 million hens are raised for eggs in the U.S., and most spend their lives in battery cages, stacked tier upon tier in huge warehouses. Each bird has less space than a letter-size sheet of paper, not even enough room to stretch a single wing. Farmers cut a portion of each hen’s sensitive beak off with a hot blade — without pain relievers — to prevent the birds from pecking at one another out of stress and desperation. When hens can no longer produce as many eggs, they’re sent to the slaughterhouse, where their throats are cut open, and they’re often scalded alive. 

If you don’t want to contribute to such cruelty, please see www.PETA.org for a free vegan starter kit. 

Heather Moore

The PETA Foundation

Norfolk, Virginia