Layers:

A gross misunderstanding has proliferated:
that eating eggs is a harmless endeavor. Firstly, The misunderstanding stems from the belief that no chickens are killed in the process of egg manufacturing. Secondly, their seems to be a belief that death is the worst possible fate a creature could endure. Death is an inevitable part of life: torture is not.

Veal production is assumed to be the worst of all offenders in the confinement business. Lorri Bauston , co-founder and operator of Farm Sanctuary (non-profit organization that rescues and houses casualties of factory farming) say she thinks that egg farms are even worse. (1)

The oft forgotten casualties of egg manufacturing: male chicks, who of course comprise half of the population born into the egg laying industry. Each year, over 400 million "layer" chicks are born in the US, half of whom are disposed of. (2) A little quick math based on a 5 day work week means that almost ¾ of a million little baby chicks are killed everyday in the US alone (up from ½ a million just 15 years ago). A widely practiced method is to literally dispose of them by tossing the chicks into plastic garbage bags and allowing them to suffocate. The most common use for discarded chicks is fertilizer , a process that requires grinding. In this case, they are tossed - alive - into a grinder. One study reported that: "Even after twenty seconds, there were only partly damaged animals with whole skulls." (3)

Arguably, the ones who are less lucky than their brothers, these "layers" will live out the next 18 months to two years, in conditions far worse than chickens reared for their meat. The crowding undergone by 'broilers"/table chickens pales in comparison to that which "layers" are subjected. "Poultry Digest" boasts: flock size in a typical egg factory is 80,000 birds per warehouse! This results in the inability for chickens to establish a stable pecking order (hierarchy). (4)

The chicks are housed five to a cage: each cage has a floor smaller than two sheets of typing paper! Houghton Poultry Research Station in Britain determined that if a bird is to be able to turn around at ease, she would need a space of 1,681 square centimeters. With only 4 birds in such cages, each bird has 375 square centimeters and most battery cages house 5 birds. (5) Although crowding increases mortality and even depresses egg production - it is not enough to offset the extra profits that make five birds per cage more profitable. Over a period of less than a year, mortality among layers housed three to a twelve-by eighteen-inch cage was 9.6%; when four birds were put in the same cage, mortality jumped to 16.4%; with five birds in the cage, 23% died. Despite these findings, the researchers advised that "under most conditions Leghorn layers should be housed at four birds per 12 by 18 cage," since the greater total number of eggs obtained made for a larger return on capital and labor, which more than compensated for the higher costs in respect of what the researchers termed "bird depreciation." (6) Crowding produces the following side effects:

• Pecking and Cannibalism:
  As in the "broiler" houses chickens are literally driven insane by their conditions (can you imagine be immobilized for almost 2 years straight?). Hens have evolved an instinct to lay eggs in privacy which is thought to be because their vent area becomes red and moist when the egg is laid, and if this is visible to other birds, they may peck at it. If this pecking draws blood, further pecking will result, which can lead to cannibalism. In the words of an egg ranch Manager: "They just can't take the stress of crowded living." (7) As with the "broiler chickens, producers deal with pecking with de-beaking. The main difference, in the case of de-beaking is that layers have live much longer than broilers, so they often have to go through this operation twice.
• Feet grown to cage:
  The simple act of walking files down the claws of hens. Without this basic freedom, however "Poultry Tribune" reports: "…we have discovered chickens literally grown fast to the cage…chickens' toes got caught in the wire mesh…So, in time, the flesh of the toes grew completely around the wire." (8) Those birds that get stuck in the back of the cage, where they cannot reach food or water, starve to death. One ingenious solution is to cut off the toes of the little chicks when they are a day or two of age.
• Feather Loss:
  An added irritation is that after a few months n the cages the birds start to lose their feathers, ,partly from rubbing against the wire, and partly because other birds are constantly are constantly pecking at them. The result is that their skin begins to rub against the wire, and it is common to see birds who have been in the cages for some time with few feathers, and skin rubbed bright red and raw, especially around the tail. John Robbins, Author of Diet for a New America "when I first saw these birds I was startled by the sight, and didn't even recognize they were chickens, Their skins are raw and sore and bright red. They look more like a walking wound than a bird." (9)
• Piling: In their panic, the birds will sometimes pile on top of each other and some will smother to death

Once a hen's egg production starts to decline (usually after less than two years), they are either sent to slaughter to be used as animal feed and low grade human food (ie" in chicken soup, or chicken pot pie), or they are put through a process to increase productivity, called:

Hens go through the physiological process associated, under natural conditions, with the seasonal loss of old plumage and growth of fresh feathers. After a molt, whether natural or artificial, the hen lays eggs more frequently. Without the seasonal changes in temperature or length of light, to force a molt requires a considerable shock to the hen's system. Lights are turned off and food is totally withdrawn for 7 to 14 days (and sometimes even longer). Many chickens face an added horror - their cage mates die during the molt and begin to decay in the cramped cage. The bodies are not removed until after the molting period (at which point, 5 to 10% of the chickens will be dead). (10) Those hens who had survived - might be expected to be sufficiently productive to be worth keeping for another six months or so. Since 1987, this method of force molting has been illegal in Britain: in North America it is still entirely legal. (11)

Every natural instinct the birds have is frustrated. They cannot walk around, scratch the ground, bathe in the dust, build nests, or stretch their wings. They are not part of a flock. They cannot keep out of each other's way, and weaker birds have no escape from the attacks of stronger ones. They are housed in buildings with windowless walls that rely on artificial ventilation. The air they breath is laden with the ammonia from their own droppings. They are frequently denied food and sleep in the name of productivity, only to one day hang upside down on a conveyor belt to await their death.

"It takes a chicken living in battery cage conditions about 24 hours to produce just one egg. Supermarket eggs cost about a dime each. There is no scale with which to compare 24 hours of animal suffering and 10 cents of your grocery bill other than the scale of human conscience." Erik Markus - author of "Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating" (12)