Research : Animal Torture & Captivity

Animal Torture & Captivity is the topic I have selected to form the basis of my uncomfortable images publication. I will show this through a larger scale high contrast publication. I will also explore a range of paper stock and different approaches such as view finders and silhouetted animals as alternative form of visual recognition. 

- Chicken's raised for meat

- Slaughtered

- Elephants killed for their tusks 

- Dolphins and Killer Whales held in captivity 

- Dolphin and Killer Whales trained for shows or public performances

- Bullfighting 

"Poultry and Eggs: Industries That Abuse Chickens

Chickens are inquisitive, intelligent animals who, according to animal behaviourist Dr. Chris Evans of Australia’s Macquarie University, “are good at solving problems.” He explains that chickens are able to understand that recently hidden objects still exist, a concept that small children are unable to master. Discussing chickens’ capabilities, he says, “As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list these attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people think I’m talking about monkeys.

In nature, chickens form friendships and social hierarchies, recognise one another and develop a pecking order, love and care for their young, and enjoy dust-bathing, making nests, and roosting in trees. Chickens raised for meat and eggs are unable to engage in any of these activities.

Chickens Raised for Meat

More than 8 billion chickens are raised and killed for meat each year in the U.S.The industry refers to these chickens as “broilers” and raises them in huge, ammonia-filled, windowless sheds where artificial lighting is manipulated to make birds eat as often as possible.

To keep up with demand and reduce production costs, genetic selection and a steady dose of growth-promoting drugs are used to ensure large, fast-growing birds. Today, most chicks take only six to seven weeks to reach “processing” weight, and chickens raised for meat weigh an average of one-fifth more than those raised in the 1950s. The shift in consumer habits—from eating whole chickens to chicken parts—has encouraged the industry to raise birds with “thicker breast[s], fatter wings and chubbier drumsticks,” according to the Associated Press. Skeletal problems, especially in the legs, are common among these birds, and many die from ascites, a disease thought to be caused by the inability of birds’ hearts and lungs to keep up with their rapid skeletal growth. According to one study, “[T]he bird’s demand for oxygen exceeds its cardiopulmonary capacity.”

Chickens Raised for Their Eggs

About 360 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. Millions of day-old male chicks are killed (usually in a high-speed grinder called a “macerator”) every year because they are worthless to the egg industry. The wire mesh of the cages rubs off their feathers, chafes their skin, and causes their feet to become crippled.

Broken bones are also common among these birds, who “suffer significant osteoporosis,” according to the International Veterinary Information Service. A study published in Poultry Science explained that “high production hens’ structural bone is mobilised throughout the laying period in order to contribute to the formation of eggshell.”

Although chickens can live for more than a decade, hens raised for their eggs are exhausted, and their egg production begins to wane when they are about 2 years old. When this happens, they are slaughtered. More than 100 million “spent” hens are killed in slaughterhouses every year.

Slaughter

The lives of chickens raised for meat and eggs end with a gruelling trip to the slaughterhouse. Before the terrifying journey, chickens are caught by workers and placed into crates. One reporter at a Delmarva chicken farm described the “catching” process as “a half-dozen men … grabbing [chickens] by their feet, shoving them into the drawers of 6-foot-high crates. The men can catch more than 6,000 birds in an hour.” One industry study of catching practices concluded that “[t]he number of freshly broken bones found in live birds prior to slaughter and the number of old healed breaks found at slaughter are unacceptably high.”

Once at the slaughterhouse, the birds are dumped from their crates and hung upside down in shackles, further injuring their legs, which are already tender and often broken. Their throats are cut open by machines, and they are immersed in scalding-hot water for feather removal. They are often conscious throughout the entire process. Because hens’ bones are so brittle from egg production that the electric current would cause them to shatter, hens often are not even stunned before their throats are cut." 

(https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/animals-used-food-factsheets/poultry-eggs-industries-abuse-chickens)

(https://soapboxie.com/social-issues/arguments-for-and-against-bullfighting)