Gemma

This is the story of Gemma. Gemma spent the majority of her short life living in a one room warehouse, without any windows, that housed her and about forty thousand others. The room was not only packed, but the ceiling fans moved dust, faeces and ammonia in the air, causing it to be breathed in instead of being cleaned out, or settling on the ground. Gemma, among others, had serious breathing problems because of this. Nobody dealt with it.

With so many of them and so little space or order, fights, and injury were, and still are, commonplace. Many of those around Gemma had injuries that were left untreated and resulted in death, which was also commonplace. Nobody dealt with that, either. Gemma avoided injury and death, but she saw it all around her.

Living in near total darkness, Gemma was fed four times as many antibiotics as cattle are in the US, merely to keep her alive in such contaminated conditions. The food she fed was pumped full of drugs, causing her to grow at an alarming rate, one which doesn’t allow time for lungs and other organs to develop. Ninety percent of those living in the same warehouse as Gemma did, and other warehouses like it, are so obese that they cannot stand.

At the tender age of six weeks, Gemma and the other occupants of the warehouse are too fat for their legs to support them, and a majority have damaged and broken legs or ankles from attempting to stand or walk. These now crippled youngsters die, as they cannot reach the water dispenser. If no one cares, no one is going to help. What could be done, anyway?

After all this, the end of Gemma’s miserable life was scheduled to end. Workers grabbed her and shoved her into a crate, for transportation. All around, workers grabbed and shoved and crates were filled. Many of those around her died from the shock and rough treatment, but a worse fate was in store for Gemma. It was more than just not caring now.

At their final destination Gemma and the other bewildered survivors were snapped upside into shackles, by their ankles. As it was, again, so roughly, Gemma was one of the many hanging from a broken ankle. Terrified, they tried to struggle, resulting in more injuries and unneeded pain. Gemma was then dragged by the machinery she was shackled into, through a vat of electrified water, designed not to finally slaughter her and end her misery, or even render her unconscious, but to paralyse her and stop her struggling.

Fully conscious, Gemma was sent along the line to have her throat cut. All those who were fully paralysed bled to death. Unluckily for poor Gemma, she still had the movement enough to struggle, and the blade missed her. This happens to a few others, and they only notice a few of those still alive, to slit their throats again. That’s hardly humane. Gemma was one of the unlucky ones, but really, they were all the unlucky ones.

Gemma, then, was still alive as the bodies were sent along to be dunked in tanks of boiling hot water, for it to boil the skin off of the bodies. No one cared that they weren’t all dead. Only a couple are unfortunate enough to live this long anyway. Gemma finally dies, scalded to death. She didn’t even reach adulthood, yet the adults who killed her felt no remorse.

This disturbing life story happens to many, in the so called civilised country of the USA. It’s supported there, and in other civilised countries such as the UK and many places in Europe. Gemma and her companions aren’t even protected by law. How can this be? Gemma is a chicken. She’s just a chicken.

As chickens are not animals, but birds, they are not protected by the same laws as cows or pigs. Even geese and fish have better rights than chickens such as Gemma. The law doesn’t see it as an issue worth worrying about. Do you?

Chickens that are first used to lay eggs never meet another chicken in their lives, living in cages producing egg after egg. They live in cages, piled upon cages, so that the faeces from one chicken falls onto the bird below. They have their beaks cut off, without any form of anaesthetic, to stop them pecking at their wounds, or other birds, where the bars of the cage have rubbed their skin raw.

After this, when they can lay no more eggs, they are sent to a slaughter house. Their bones are so brittle that they cannot be electrocuted beforehand as their bones would simply shatter, but are merely scalded to death in the tanks of boiling water. So badly treated, they are too damaged for humans to eat, and are made into cat or dog food.

Consider Gemma and other chickens when you go to a fried chicken shop. Think of the egg-laying chickens when you buy eggs, or food for your pets. Vegetarianism may be too much of a challenge right now, but think of Gemma, and think of free-range.

All facts about the lives and deaths of egg laying chickens (breeder chickens), and those used for meat (broiler chickens) come from PETA’s official website.