European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 20, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                In the eight crowded weeks from egg to its one injection after another Chicken Little Doest stay that Way Long by Seth King new York times Long gone Are the Days when laying and roasters were raised in the barnyard of Small separated by Miles from other and pecking at such bits As came their in today mass production of poultry the Bird that ends up on your table never sees the world outside its laying Cage or Chick Box or vast broiler where 000 broilers Are fattened at one in a three week the agriculture depart ment estimated last at least 225 million new baby Chicks Are prepared to contribute their bodies to the 11 billion pounds of Chicken meat produced each year in the country Factor like poultry in the eight weeks Between hatching and demise each Bird is injected or vaccinated with at least 20 anti i minerals and vitamins designed to make it grow faster and protect it from the myriad diseases that Chick in flesh in crowded conditions is heir the plump its grower tender broiler begins to receive preventive treatment even while its egg is developing in its whose feed was laced with at least nine different growth minerals and some designed to improve the Hatch ability of her within an hour or two after it is the Chick that becomes the basis of your Coq Auvin feels the minute sting of an air actuated Inocula Tor pressed against its tiny neck to vaccinate it against Mareks a form of leukaemia that affects the Bones and nerve ends of with their very first broiler Chicks Start ingesting Low Levels of penicillin or neuter Raycine to stimulate their growth and improve the nutritional efficiency of the  also find mixed in their Corn bits or Alfalfa one or More of such antibiotics As Chlortetracycline and singly or in these Are expected to prevent chronic respiratory infectious Hesami Diasis and As Well As the dread which infects intestinal tracts and is one of the most common threats to if an oxytetracycline is the broiler will have Protection against fowl cholera and Avian infectious he the Chicken feed will also include one of the a category of drugs designed to protect the broiler against fowl air Sac and ulcerative in there will be ethos Quin to Block Excepha which poultry men Call crazy Chick disease and As if this were not enough an arsenate compound that stimulates growth and heightens the yellow colouring in a broilers and that is Only to launch the Chicks in the after they Are about 10 Days growing broilers Are vaccinated against any diseases that Are endemic to the area in which they Are being raised such As Newcastle a respiratory and nervous disorder that threatens the hundreds of thousands of chickens raised in the Del Marva Peninsula along the Eastern shores of Maryland and during this growing period Many of the larger broiler production companies that have their own laboratories and technicians make flock wide inspections to test the tissues of selected chickens for the presence of drug Resi but they need not worry in All the drugs and chemicals fed to or injected into at least 20 of them in the average feeding operation have been approved by the food and drug which also sets the quantities and combinations of drugs that May be included in feed the Agency requires a grower to Stop using certain drugs from five to one Days before the Chicken is sent to the this is to Lessen the Chance that the which could cause cancer in will re main in the just before the broilers Start along the last few Yards to the trained inspectors from the agriculture departments food safety and Quality serv ice watch them for any outward signs of when the chickens have met their appointed other agriculture department inspectors scrutinize each carcass for any irregularities in its apr Yearance or indications of if any drug Resi dues Are slaughtering is halted and the broilers in that flock May be ordered the huge agribusiness concerns that produce and pro Cess the broilers insist that antibiotics and growth stimulating chemicals Are absolutely essential if chickens Are to survive and the producers Are to make their minute profits on each of Nicula Eascie new York times without the drugs and both the privately financed National broiler Council and the agriculture department egg output would drop More than 2 percent and broiler meat output would decline anywhere from the councils 5 percent estimate to the departments and in the Jam packed broiler and layer when one Chicken they All the both the department and the Council Are essential to Check diseases that could sweep through a crowded broiler House in a Day or two and wipe out 80 percent of the if they Are used in the quantities allowed by the Fra and if there Are no the drugs and chemical additives ingested by the broiler should have no direct effect on human but the food and drug Agency is increasingly concerned that the continuous sub therapeutic feeding of penicillin and tetracycline to chickens develops immunity to these drugs in the bacteria that inhabit chickens intestinal tracts and other these immune bacteria can later enter humans who eat the chickens or tend rendering the Many of which Are also prescribed for he ineffective against the and making it More difficult to treat human ailments such As men and recent studies have not confirmed this but they have not disproved it legislation came before Congress to prevent the sub therapeutic use of pen Cillins and tetracycline a with but it died during the last a pigs right to experience bigness by Gerald Kopplin United press International chickens Lay eggs to Rock cows give milk to the morning news and hogs snooze under a heat lamp All without venturing out into the searing Sun or blowing sounds but Many animal lovers Call it Farmers Call it confined livestock putting chickens in a Chicken cows in a barn or hogs in a hog House makes sense to them cutting increasing production and allowing year round livestock raising in cold in the last most Farmers have gone heavily into hogs Are born and fattened without rooting in the chickens spend their lives in crowded dropping eggs on conveyor the biggest reason for confined hog Fin Ishing is for feed efficiency and less said Carl a South Dakota Grain and livestock Farmer who fatten hogs each year near but Michael director of the Institute for study of animal the scientific division of the National humane society in believes confined rear ing prevents an animal from experiencing its intrinsic a pig has a right to experience something of its bigness before it is so should a said a animals should have the Basic Freedom to easily and comfortably stand turn lie and Groom or Fox i would interact some interaction with their own he is particularly opposed to the tethering to the ground of Brood sows or their confinement continuously in narrow the growth of veal calves in narrow crates in darkness or Semi darkness until slaughtered at age 16 and chickens who never leave their the main Issue is farm animal Fox one solution is to promote there Are some of us in this society who will not tolerate animal exploitation for profit and his organization has proposed legislation to regulate confinement whose Oneman operation is Small compared to the factory farms which raise has not heard too much about the controversy and doubts farm ers could feed the world without their modern Kent a Swine nutritionist with Cargill research farm near Elk said the criticism of confined feeding is not fair to animal an animal that is uncomfortable will not reproduce or gain Ekstrom he said those who oppose confined animal husbandry As cruel should be indignant about the poor Deer and in Many ways we have eliminated files and weve eliminated intestinal i know some people dont like added Norman a poultry research manager for pointing to a Metal shed full of chickens in Little wire where the Birds sleep and Lay High Rise apartments Are not what people would they had a he the eggs Roll Down a conveyor Belt to be refrigerated and sent to if chickens ran free to pick Grasshoppers and Laid in the Hay eggs would be Over a Magruder they say these Birds should run but these Are clean advocates of cages say chickens in an open barn can Fly into a Corner and suffocate during severe outside they can die of the cold rain or easily fall prey to foxes or Fox gets angry at the Battery in which three to five chickens Are put in 12inch by 16inch cages stacked two and three High in the its extreme he the problem is you have four or five Birds in a Cage usually 12 inches by 16 or 18 their Wing Span is 28 to 30 few eggs Are gathered in the Hen House or found in the barn by the farm wife or children in the traditional Man now 95 percent of the eggs come from hens kept in Battery he Dale associate Dean of the University of Minnesota veterinarian economic its impossible to return to the Chicken Coop we All knew on the with a confined Chicken a farm couple can care for laying he before the new meth chickens was too much when the Birds become old enough to Lay usually 20 to 2 they Are put in the laying three to five chickens to a two to three cages they Lay eggs for a they Are a Little nervous at Magruder Rock music settles the Birds if there is the Thunder claps Are not so putting up a new barn can be usually Cost ing about a Bird or to a build Magruder some Farmers go broke investing in such while those who can handle the payments on the plus will make handsome profits when the build Ings Are paid matter built a new confined hog feeding barn and invested in a farrowing operation with several it Damn near broke me the first part of the he prices fell last Spring and he lost on each he said he didst make enough the rest of the year to pay for his its a big but were Here to keep everybody matter Sorenson said the Minnesota humane society has asked him for guidelines on the care of farm he doubted any Law would be As restrictive As suggested by Fox maintains confined livestock has created new Dis the old diseases were the new diseases Are very the bacteria in farm animals get a genetic message to develop immunity to other bacteria and can pass this on to in a confined animal he weve changed the animals entire environment to which it is not biologically he said his criticism of the established agribusiness and agriculture academic Community has brought re it took two to three years for the establishment to accept the now for Many the problem is a scientific in increasingly Ekstrom and his associates have developed an outside hog farrowing and fattening system As efficient As totally enclosed in the hot hogs take a outside in Winter the Low ceilings of their Sheds help retain animal outside barns Cost less to build than totally con fined systems and enable a Farmer to care for hogs year round with six hours of average daily but the system is not for every he especially one who prefers not to work for those Farmers who question the Cargill holds training sessions for Swine breeders to show How an open showers and can work and still make a up Farmers Call it confined livestock rearing Many animal lovers consider it As Page 14 the stars and stripes january 1981 the stars and stripes Page 15