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The Dead and Dying

Due to filthy living conditions and a lack of basic care, the egg industry has extremely high mortality rates. According to a report by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, for every 700,000 hens in a modern egg facility, 1,500 birds die each and every week in their cages. The factory “farmers” disregard the health and welfare of the individual animals, as they consider the number that will die in their profit calculations. Many hens succumb to untreated sickness, disease, or injures. The hens at Weaver Bros. are no exception.

At Weaver Bros. Egg Farm, MFA investigators discovered severely decomposed bodies in cages with live hens. The hens were left to slowly rot on their cage floors. Their cage mates, still producing eggs for human consumption, are forced to live with the stench and maggots this environment creates.

MFA also uncovered piles of dead hens in the aisles of sheds at Weaver Bros. A shopping cart leaving a trail of blood was found containing countless decomposing egg-laying hens. Investigators also documented numerous trash cans filled with dead bodies. A live hen was discovered thrown away like garbage in one of the trash bins.

“The bodies of several dead hens are seen; some are in the advanced stages of decay. This indicates that they have been dead for several days or longer and, obviously, no attempt has been made to remove them from the cages. These corpses could pose a disease threat to other chickens.” --Dr. Eric Dunayer, VMD

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