PETA India Chief, Anuradha Sawhney, issued a strong statement decrying the way chickens are kept and transported in small, cramped and unhygienic cages, in conditions that are inhuman and almost unchicken.
An egg farm in Kalyan, Thane (left) where 7-8 chicken are crammed in tiny cages the size of a paper sheet. Do chickens face a future as horrific as that of Mumbai commuters (right) who are crammed in worse conditions, often forced to hang outside the compartments, many a times on top of the compartments due to lack of space inside.
"At present the poultry industry follows no standards and poor chicken are kept and transported in conditions that are almost as bad as that of commuters traveling by Mumbai locals. Like humans jam-packed in Mumbai's local trains, chicken are squeezed into tiny compartments with little breathing space. In egg farms six to seven chickens are crammed together inside cages the size of a sheet of paper, almost akin to the way Mumbai train commuters are stuffed inside the train compartments.
"Chickens who are raised for their flesh spend their entire lives in massive sheds with tens of thousands of other birds, similar to the way Mumbai rail commuters spend a major part of their entire lives in trains with tens of thousands of other commuters."
Chickens crammed in sheds with tens of thousands of other chicken in conditions resembling human commuters from Mumbai in train compartments and railway stations.
"During transportation, they are locked in cages that are very poorly ventilated. A chicken needs at least one-fourth of its surrounding space to be ventilated, but most cages that are used to transport them don't meet these standards, causing cages to be heated up, resulting in acute discomfort to chicken." said Ms Sahney. "This nightmarish situation is not very different from the condition of Mumbai locals where ventilation is minimum resulting in rail compartments getting extremely hot causing sweating and intense discomfort to the rail commuters."
Chicken packed in poorly ventilated cages (left). Will the authorities wake-up to their plight only when their conditions become as bad as that of Mumbai rail commuters (right)?
"Unless, the government sets up a regulatory mechanism to prevent chicken-abuse due to these cramped conditions, it wouldn't be too long before the condition of chicken would worsen as much as that of Mumbai rail commuters." stated Anuradha Sawhney
