Egg Production: Facts People Should Know
From All-Creatures.org

On this page you will find a compilation of information we have gathered, and believe to be true, from various sources that is intended to enlighten, and hopefully evoke a further softening of the heart towards all of God's creatures. We have linked these references for the reader's convenience and further investigation.

Introduction

Most people's mental image of Egg Production is that of a farmyard in which chickens are free to roam about, to fly, and to even roost in the trees. To the side of the yard is a chicken coop, where the chickens are free to enter, to leave, and to nest and lay their eggs. Then each day the farmer comes out with his or her basket and collects the eggs for market or personal use. 

While such a situation may exist on some individual small farms, nothing is further from the truth when it comes to the vast majority of farms engaged in commercial Egg Production. Additionally, many ethical vegetarians believe that the eating of eggs is ok as it doesn't cause the death of the chicken.

Articles

• UPC United Poultry Concerns
• Consider the Egg
• The Chicken
• The Heifer Project...What's Wrong With Gifting Animals? Inhumanity in the Name of Humanity
  
  
• 3 Reasons to Inspire a Vegan Mother's Day
• 5 Startling Facts the Egg Industry Doesn't Want You to Know
• 12 Egg Facts the Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know
• 15 Souls: Why the Chickens at Urban Adamah Matter
• 20 Questions for Animal Lovers on World Day for Farmed Animals
• 39 Arrested Protesting Industrial Farm Supplying So-Called "Cage-Free" Eggs to Amazon and Whole Foods
• 239 Hens Open Rescued
• 750 Hens from Battery Cage Egg Farm Safe
• 500,000 Chickens Perish in Factory Farm Fire in Colorado
• A Bonding Affair: Family Bonds are Not Exclusive to Humans
• A brief thought on feel-good fuzzy words
• A Cage Is A Cage (Video)
• A Corporate Calculation
• A Gap in the GAP
• A Hatchery Account
• A Hen Learns to Eat Again
• A Lack of Graciousness Toward One's Fellow Beings
• A Look Inside Mexico's Cruel Egg Industry
• A Perfect Day, Unless you Happen to be a Chicken
• A story about three tough and resilient laying hens
• A Victory for Farm Animals?
• About a Goose
• About De-beaking...
• Agreement Raises Hopes and Fears for Egg-Laying Hens: Our Perspective
• Alice: Her Life and Death at Eden
• Alice Was a Fighter
• All Babies Should Be With Their Moms
• An Act of Piracy
• Anatomy of a Chicken Rescue
• Animal Agriculture = 99.7% of Animal Exploitation
• Animal Agriculture: The Huge Machine
• Animal Farming and Its Exploitation of Female Bodies
• Animal Organizations Intensify Opposition to Egg Bill (H.R. 3798) in Anticipation of Senate Version
• Animal People and Sexual Misconduct
• Animal Place spearheads the rescue of 3,000 hens
• Animal Place’s Position on “Humane” Meat, Dairy, and Eggs
• Animals Are Mothers Too
• Animal Suffering in the Egg Industry
• An Open Letter to the Humane Society of the United States from United Poultry Concerns
• An Ordinary Thursday until Rufus and Wainwright
• Another HORROR! 65,000 Hens Burned Alive
• Another rotten egg story
• Appalling Cruelties at Nation’s Top Egg Producers
• Are Organic Poultry/Eggs Even Possible?
• Are There Really Cruelty-Free Eggs?
• Asia's Richest Man Backs Vegan Start-Up Venture
• Avian Flu and You
• Baby Ducks... Baby Chicks
• Backyard Chicken Farming Leads to Abandoned Hens
• Backyard Chicken Flocks...Is It Really a Good Idea?
• Backyard Chickens: Expanding Our Understanding of ‘Harm’
• Backyard chickens have a downside
• Backyard Hens: Concerns And Challenges
• Backyard Slaughter Reality Check
• Bailey's Story
• Battery Cage Ban in Poland to Remain in Force
• Battery Cage in Blackout House
• Battery Hen By Ashia T.P.
• Battery Hen By Jenny Moxham
• Battery Hen: Her Life Is Not For the Birds
• Battling Battery Cages
• Beautiful Hens Fly Home to United Poultry Concerns
• Be Fair Be Vegan Tasmania
• Big Ag Lets Hundreds of Thousands of Farm Animals Die in Barn Fires Every Year
• Big Food Is Starting to Worry About a Millennial Generation That's Not So Into Animal Products
• 'Bird Flu 90 Times Deadlier Than COVID-19 Could Emerge From Factory Farming' Warns Report
• Birds and the U.S. Postal Service: What Do We Learn From the Current Tragedy?
• Black Eagle Farm: Story of an Organic Egg Scam
• Botched Ballot Measure Keeps Hens in Cages
• 'But Eggs Taste So Good'
• But for the Sake of Some Little Mouthful Of Flesh…
  
  
  
  
• 'Cage-free' eggs are not humane for hens
• 'Cage-Free' Hens: New Investigation
• California Ag-Gag Bill is Dead
• California Egg Farmers Face Felony Cruelty Charges for Leaving 50,000 Hens to Starve to Death
• Californians Against Cruelty, Cages, and Fraud: Stop the Rotten Egg Initiative
• California Voters Beware — Proposition 12 is a scam
• Celebrating Sandye: My Tribute to One Very Unique Hen
• Chick Shredding, Pet Food and Tyson Proteins
• Chicken Behavior: An Overview of Recent Science
• Chicken or Broiler, Cow or Steer, Owner or Guardian? - Liberating the Language of Animal Abuse
• Chicken Rescuer Says Hens from New Colony Cages as Damaged as Those from Battery Cages
• Chickens and eggs – what about the males?
• Chickens Deserve Compassionate Care
• Chickens, Eggs, and the Free-Range Scam
• Chickens Flying High – Literally!
• Chickens and Toxic Waste, and I Was Wrong about Backyard Chickens...
• Chickens: Their Life and Death in Farming Operations
• Chicks Ground Up Alive
• CNN Report on Factory Farms and Ag-Gag Wins National Press Club Award
• COK Sets the Record Straight: A Case of Animal Cruelty at Cal-Cruz Hatcheries
• Color Me Safe and Sound for Mothers's Day AND International Respect for Chickens Day
• Compassionate Student Saves Hatching Project Chick
• Condemn Killing Birds Like This Veterinarians Say to the AVMA—Now!
• Connecting the Issues of Food Justice
• Corporate “Cage-Free” Commitments Are Only Meaningful With Accountability
• Costco, General Mills, Prop 2, and HSUS: New Day — Same Bogus Claims
• Counterglow: US Map of Animal Agriculture Operations
• Courting hen and egg producers leads animal charities into deep @#$%
• COVID-19 Reaches U.S. Slaughterhouses
• Creating Killers: Human Tolls of Slaughter
• Cruelty and Cover-Up in California's Egg Industry
• Dangerous, Dreary 'Chick Days' Resume at Tractor Supply Stores
• Dear Ellen: Let Us Tell You Something About “Happy”
• Debeaking - Mutilation to Increase Profit
• Debeaking - Poultry Researcher Speaks Out
• Debeaking - An e-mail discussion with an Industry Researcher
• Debeaking - Comments on e-mail discussion
• Debeaking Poultry: The Need For Legislation
• Deceptive Advertising by Animal Products Industry Fools Consumers; Advocates Fight Back
• “Depopulation” of Poultry Does Not Mean “Humanely Killed”
• Disappearing Hens: Stopping Short of What Needs to Be Said – and Done
• Dispelling Myths
• "Disregarded" Shows the Plight Chickens Face
• Do Chickens Talk to Each Other? Let’s Understand How Chickens Communicate
• Do These Images Make You Hungry?
• Dominion Chinese Premiere Sells Out As Vegan Movement Grows
• Dominion Film Reveals Truth of Animal Agriculture
• Don't blame wild birds for avian infuenza
• Don’t lie to yourself: “Backyard eggs” come from suffering and violence
• Doris the Hen’s Amazing Recovery and What Most Don’t Know about Eggs
• Dustbathing...Heaven for "Spent" Hens video
• Eating Chickens and Eggs is NOT 'Better' for the Environment
• Egg Industry Concession Is No ‘Victory’
• Egg Production: Enriched Cages and Embodied Prisons
• Eggribusiness
• Eggs - careless talk costs lives
• Eggs - Flyers/Handouts
• Egg Labels in 2019
• Egg Prices Rise As Evidence Humans Will Never Meaningfully Care About Animals Rises
• Egg use by humans – a look at whether it’s humane
• Eggs-tremely Disgusting: Inspectors Uncover Factory Farm Filth in Iowa
• Eggs for Breakfast? The Reality of What Goes Into Them
• Eggs: The Price They Pay
• Eggs: What Are You Really Eating?
• Ellie the Hen
• Enriched Cages and Embodied Prisons
• "Euthanizing" Poultry Flocks
• Evaluating Mass Slaughter Techniques: ‘Whole-House Killings’ Of Hens
• Extraordinary article on egg farming in Harper
• Face Her and Tell Her: "My preferences are more important than your suffering"
• Factory Farm 360
• Factory Farming on Display
• Factory Farming vs. Alternative Farming: The Humane Hoax
• Fairy: International Respect for Chickens Day 2019
• Farmed Animal Sanctuaries Oppose “Enriched” Cages for Laying Hens
• Feds Find Filth, Salmonella Risk at Egg Factory Holding One Million Hens
• First time flapping wings, pecking in dirt, and dust-bathing
• Food Q&A
• Food Recalls, Awareness, and Consumer Attitudes
• Forced Molting
• Free-Range Egg Fraud Sparks Lawsuit
• Free-Range: Not Free Enough
• Free-Range Poultry and Eggs
• Frostbite Victim, Sweetie
• Funeral Service/March For Victims of Animal Holocaust
• Gas Chambers – The 'Humane' Alternative?
• Gassing “Spent” Hens to Death with Carbon Dioxide
• Germany’s Decision to Affirm Legality of Male Chick Shredding Shines Global
• Happy hens, free of factory farms, don’t peck each other
• Happy Rape, Happy Meat
• Hard Boiled Nonsense
• Hatcheries Ship Male Chicks as Packing Peanuts
• Hellman's Drops Lawsuit Aganst Hampton Creek, Launches Its Own Vegan Mayonnaise
• Helping Chickens "Cross to the Other Side"?
• Hen History
• Her Life is Not for the Birds: The Battery Hen
• Honor Mothers of All Species this Mother's Day
• Honoring Mothers and Ending Slavery
• How Cage-Free Eggs are Hurting Hens
• How Free Is 'Free-Range'?
• How I Learned the Truth About Eggs
• How many animals really suffer to death?
• How Mom-Friendly is Your Mother’s Day Menu?
• Humane Facts: Understanding Labels and Loopholes
• Humane Farming Association forms ballot committee to defeat egg industry initiative
• Humane Heartbreak
• Humane Hoax Video
• Humane Loopholes
• I Am A Bird
• I Am Not Garbage!
• If I Were a Chicken
• If You Give a Cluck, Go Vegan! - Karen Davis
• I Know Just How Incredible Chickens Are: I've Spent More Than Thirty Years Getting to Know Them
• In a nutshell: why all egg use is inhumane
• In Praise of Roosters
• Industry News: Egg Consumption Is Declining
• International Respect For Chickens Day
• Introducing The Reason for Vegan Podcast Series
• Investigation at Kawartha Lakes Co-op
• It’s Time to Rethink Our Food Choices
• Is Being Vegetarian Enough?
• Is Factory Farming Turning Cows into Cannibals?
• Is It Okay for Sanctuaries to Give Hens’ Eggs to Donors?
• Is the US Egg Industry “Evolving”? Agreement Raises Hopes for Egg-Laying Hens
• Just For All Mothers
• Justice For All Mothers
• Keeping chickens can have unwanted surprises
• Keeping the Foxes out of the Henhouse: Avoiding Potential Legislative Pitfalls Following Historic Agreement for Egg-Laying Chickens
• Killing Animals: Justified By Imaginary Solutions to Suffering?
• Killing Chickens in a Wood Chipper Discussed in The Canadian Veterinary Journal
• Lies, damn lies, and statistics*
• Like the Foul Stable: What I Learned on a Family Farm
• Maine Egg Producer Pleads Guilty to 10 Counts of Cruelty to Animals
• Many Thanks to The Intercept: Missing Piglets, The FBI and The Revolving Door
• Mary
• Massachusetts Legislature Betrays “Egg‑Laying” Hens and Voters
• McDonald's Cruelty: The Rotten Truth About Egg McMuffins
• Meet the Parents
• Misery is Not a Health Food
• Motivating the AVMA to envision a world without Ventilation Shutdown
• Moving Animals: Photographing the Undeniable Suffering on Factory Farms
• My Late Night Visit to a 'Certified Humane' Egg Farm
• Neither the Chicken Nor the Egg: Deal Struck Between HSUS and Egg Producers
• New investigation reveals horrific truth within German free-range egg industry
• New Review Study Shows That Egg-Industry-Funded Research Downplays the Danger of Cholesterol
• Nicholas Kristof’s March 14 article, 'To Kill a Chicken'
• Not In My Backyard...The Day My Quiet Cul-De-Sac Turned Into a Bloodbath
• Ohio Fresh Eggs Fined $635,000, "Settles" Pollution Claims
• Open Rescues: How UPC Introduced This Strategy to U.S. Activists
• Open Rescue is Spreading - And you Won't Believe What We are Digging Up
• Open Rescues Began in 1994
• Our Letters to LA Times Chide Egg Shortage Complaints
• Over Half a Million Animals Died in Preventable 'Barn Fires' in the U.S. in 2022
• Parental Appeal to Stop Daycare Chick Hatching Project Succeeds
• Pasture Raised Eggs: the Humane, Sustainable Fiction
• Pastured Organic vs. Industrial Production
• Patty Mark and Animal Liberation Victoria Sued by Animal Industry
• Pet Food, Bird Shredding and Embryo Sexing: Behind the Scenes
• Poultry Slaughter: The Need For Legislation
• Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs 2009, Preface
• Proposed Legislation for Egg-Laying Hens: An Update
• Quality Egg Fined Millions, DeCosters Plead Guilty
• Reconsidering the plight of the chicken and the egg
• Rejecting the Egg Bill Means Rejecting Cages
• Remembering Doris
• Rescuing Some Egg-Laying Hens
• Response to a ‘welfare’ survey about hens used for eggs
• Reverend X
• Rita Passed Away Today
• Rooftop Protest at Melbourne Egg Laying Farm
• Rooster Sanctuary at Danzig's Roost
• Rose
• Rotten Egg Cartel Kills Hens to Fix Prices, Pays $28 Million to Settle Suit
• Santa Cruz chicken hatchery sued for animal abuse
• Santa Cruz Hatchery Shutdown after Unprecedented Settlement Reached in Cruelty Case
• Sarah, Determined to Live and Thrive
• Saving the Earth, Saving the Earthlings
• Senate Rejects Feinstein's Egg Bill
• Serving Abuse: Promoting Animal-Derived Food
• Six Challenges to 'Humane' Animal Product Claims
• Slaughterhouse Vigil and Egg Farm Visit
• Slaughterhouses: Where Animal Rights and Workers’ Rights Suffer in Symphony
• Small Farms are Not the Solution to Animal Suffering in Meat, Dairy and Egg Production
• Spike
• Stealing is a Crime
• Story of United Poultry Concerns Wins Virginia Press Association Awards
• Stench and Cruelty: Factory Egg Farm Ruled a Nuisance by Federal Grand Jury
• 'Surely taking milk and eggs doesn't kill?' – FAQ
• Sweaters for Chickens in Cold Climates vs. Egg Company Fined for Letting Hens Freeze to Death
• Tell Congress to STOP the Rotten Egg Bill
• The Backyard Bird Fad: Profit is All They Care About
• The Biggest Feminist Issue There Is
• The Boys of the Egg Industry
• The Case for Seeing Animals As Rape Victims
• The Crowland Chicks and Our Conventional Wisdom About Animals
• The Danger of Letting the Animal Agriculture Industry Operate in Secrecy
• The Dark Side of Recent Egg Headlines
• The Dilemma of Backyard Chicken Keeping
• The Dirty Truth About Panera's "Clean" Foods
• The 'Easter' Chick – A Lost Soul
• The Egg Industry is a Baby-Killing Enterprise
• The Egg Industry's Forgotten Victims
• The End of Hens: Inside a “Spent Hen” Slaughterhouse
• The Failure of Prop 2 in California
• The Fallen Nest
• The Farm Myth: Fantasy Farms, Factory Farming
• The Fatal Recall System
• The Fight for 40 Billion
• The freedom-crushing Texas ag-gag bill SB 1884 is officially dead after not being heard on the House floor!
• The Great Egg Debate - Science, Not Emotion, Shows that Caged Laying Hens Have Poor Welfare
• The Happy Hens of Europe
• The Hen is a Symbol of Motherhood for Reasons We May Have Forgotten, So Let Us Recall
• The HSUS-United Egg Producer Agreement: Two Reactions
• The Humane Egg
• The Nightmare Before Easter is Upon Us!
• The Physicians Committee Praises New Dietary Guidelines for Strengthening Cholesterol Warnings, But Demands Investigation into Cholesterol Money Trail
• The Plight of Poultry and the Death of Meat
• The Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act sounds like a great idea. But is it? What is it?
• The Price of Eggs
• The Problem: “Animal Advocates” Who Promote Animal Exploitation
• The Problem with Meat
• The Reality Behind Modern Egg Production
• The Rescue of Kukkuta and the Rooster Dilemma
• The Rotten Egg Bill (S. 820) Omitted from the Farm Bill
• The Science of Delivering Drugs through Chicken Eggs
• The Secret Life of Poultry Products
• The Story of an Egg Documentary is Without a Yolk
• The World According to Intelligent and Emotional Chickens
• Their Eggs, Not Ours
• There’s no such thing as an ethical egg
• Thousands of Animals Burning to Death in Barn Fires
• Thousands Urge US To Ban Culling Of Male Chicks And Use New Sex-Determining Technology
• Three Reasons to Inspire a Vegan Mother’s Day
• To Protect Animals, Support Rescuers
• Tractor Supply Company Mistreats Baby Chicks and Ducklings
• Trump wants to make avian flu great again
• Truth Matters: DxE Investigators Expose "Humane" Fraud at Whole Foods
• Un-Cooped: Deconstructing the Domesticated Chicken
• Uncooped
• Understanding Euthanasia: When Life and Words Become Worthless
• United Poultry Concerns 2015 Conscious Eating Conference - Video Presentations
• United Poultry Concerns 2016 Conscious Eating Conference - Videos
• Urge U.S. Postal Service and Your U.S. Representative to Ban Shipping Live Birds in the Mail
• U.S. gets ‘D’ Grade for Animal Welfare Standards
• U.S. Government Bails Out Chicken Factory Farms
• Vegan Ad Campaign in Ireland
• Vegans Don't Eat Eggs. Period.
• Vegans Win Again: Egg Intake Linked to Diabetes Risk
• Victims of 'Humane'
• Violated Expectations in the Experience of Factory-Farmed Chickens
• War on Vegan Activism
• Wayne Creed (Cape Charles Wave) Pays a Visit to United Poultry Concerns
• What are eggs for?
• What Do Backyard Chickens and Factory Farm Chickens Have in Common?
• What’s the Bird Flu News — “Millions Dead” or “Eggs Prices Could Increase”?
• What U.S. Poultry Producers Do Not Want You to Know About Bird Flu
• What's Wrong With Backyard Eggs? (2014)
• What’s Wrong with Backyard Eggs? (2012 from Gentle World)
• Which Eggs Are Truly Ethical to Eat?
• Which Is Worse For The Environment - Poultry Or Beef?
• Why I Got Kicked Out of Whole Foods …. Again
• Widespread Practices, Inherent Cruelty and Suffering
• Will Birds Sing or Will They Be Silent? Our Choice is Their Fate
• Workers rescue over 4,000 hens from factory farm
• When We Suddenly See the Same Things Differently
• Why Are We Afraid of Radical Change?
• Why Veganism Is Not Enough
• Who Protects Farm Animals?
• Whole Foods: The False Face of Humane Farming – Investigators Find “Certified Humane” Cruelty to Chickens
• Why Are Farmed Animals Forsaken - By Their Advocates?
• Why 'Cage-Free' or 'Free-Range' Eggs Are NOT a Humane Alternative – In a Nutshell
• Why California proposition 2, now in effect, is not protecting farmed animals
• Why Real Feminists Should Stop Eating Eggs
• Why We Oppose California’s Farmed-Animal Initiative and You Should, Too
• Year of the Rooster
• Zoonoses - a ticking time bomb

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