Prisoned Chickens Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry (Paperback)

~ (Author) "He woke up on the floor of the broiler shed with 20 thousand other bewildered young chickens under the electric lights, with the familiar pain..." (more)
Key Phrases: poultry researchers, commercial laying hens, telephone interview with the author, United States, Department of Agriculture, New York City (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Former English professor Davis is founder and president of the nonprofit organization United Poultry Concerns. After introducing readers to a brief history of poultry farming and the natural and social lives of chickens, Davis focuses on the egg and broiler industries, primarily in the United States. This is followed by a chapter on slaughter, which provides more gruesome detail than some readers will find comfortable. In the final chapter, vegetarianism, especially veganism, is promoted as the only effective solution. As one might guess from the title, chickens are considered from an animal-rights perspective, and this publication is intended as a consciousness-raising expose of what Davis sees as a cruel, obscene, and morally handicapped industry. There is not much new here, but the author does a good job of drawing from a wide variety of poultry science, animal-rights and other literature, including Page Smith and Charles Daniel's marvelous The Chicken Book (LJ 7/75), to make her case. For animal rights collections and curious patrons who wonder where their eggs and chicken nuggets really come from.?William H. Wiese, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Many Americans have made the choice to eat less red meat. For some, it is simply a health decision; others are choosing to become vegetarians for ethical reasons. Another factor is that books such as Jeremy Rifkin's Beyond Beef (1992) have exposed unsanitary processing conditions and alerted readers to the environmental consequences of raising and maintaining large cattle herds. Davis now targets those who eat chicken, turkey, or eggs with her scathing indictment of the poultry industry. She is president of United Poultry Concerns, an animal rights and animal welfare advocacy group, and she has previously written a vegetarian cookbook, Instead of Chicken, Instead of Turkey (1993), featuring "alternatives to traditional poultry and egg recipes." Upbraiding those who breed and raise poultry, Davis documents the inhumane conditions of factory farming, explicitly detailing the lives and deaths of battery hens raised in tiered brooding trays and of broiler chickens. She also charges that so-called free-range chickens fare no better. Bolstered by unyielding conviction, Davis argues her case with passion. David Rouse

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Product Details

• Paperback: 175 pages
• Publisher: Book Publishing Company (TN); 1 edition (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570670323
• ISBN-13: 978-1570670329
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #844,839 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Inside Look at Inexcusable Atrocities, October 6, 2004

By	CreepyT "CreepyTendencies" (Colorado, United States) - See all my reviews

Dr. Karen Davis postulates "[c]an one regard a fellow creature as a property item, an investment, a piece of meat, an `it,' without degenerating into cruelty and dishonesty towards that creature? Human slavery was brutal. Does anyone really believe that nonhuman slavery operates on a higher plane?"

The first portion of this very important book beckons the reader to view chickens as more than mere food, more than simply an aspect of agribusiness, but rather sentient beings capable of a wide range of emotions not too different from our own. Davis accomplishes this by incorporating various personal stories and anecdotes regarding her own chickens, as well as quotations from other chicken owners and those who have visited slaughter houses and hatcheries first hand.

After making this key point, the reader is treated to the appallingly repulsive goings-on at hatcheries and slaughter houses, as well as other malevolent profanities we humans put chickens through so we can continue to eat "well." Davis describes in excruciating, brutally honest detail the horrid environment in which chickens (particularly egg-laying) spend their lives, in their entirety. This lack of a proper, more naturalized, environment leads to disease and malnutrition in these chickens, as well as "cannibalistic" behavior (in actuality a manifestation of their natural pecking instinct), which in turn lead to hideous vaccination and de-beaking processes. Furthermore, the actual process of slaughter is described in meticulous detail, including electrocution, gassing, and neck-slicing (all of which most chickens are still alive for). In addition, it isn't exactly news that broiler chickens are being genetically "engineered" to have larger breasts in order to enlarge profits, and that these chickens frequently suffer ill effects such as broken legs and orthopedic disorders.

If the atrocities that chickens experience aren't enough to spur the reader into disgusted amazement, Davis points out ill effects for humans as well. For example, uric acid from the fecal matter abundant in the close confines of egg-laying hens releases ammonia into the atmosphere, which has been shown to absorb into the eggs slated for human consumption. Not to mention the illnesses and diseases running rampant in chickens that still find their way onto dinner tables across the globe. Is ignorance really bliss, or would you prefer to be enlightened as to what exactly goes into the chicken contents of canned soup, school lunches, pet food, and chicken nuggets?

By the end of this book, Davis is stating that vegetarianism, or more specifically veganism, is the answer to the aforementioned problems. Though that may seem extreme for most people, Davis does make a thorough and well-researched argument.

Though most of this information is somewhat dated (most data coming from 1995), the issue is no less pertinent. I would, however, be curious to see more recent data. This is a book everyone should read before their next flesh-devouring feast. Indeed, non-human slavery should not operate on a higher plane, and it would seem that there are those who need to be reminded of this.

44 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ralph Nader said one couldn't stop all the suffering..., December 27, 1999

By	Faye Ferrall (usa) - See all my reviews

but, "you could reduce it." Karen Davis is commended for the passion and dedication she shows when taking on the topic of poultry production. This book opens our eyes to the truth about just what animal suffering and environmental degradation goes into that chicken soup. No educational program is complete without a course in modern food production...not the side presented by the factory farming industry, but by those who have a different slant. Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs shows us what the poultry producers don't want us to see. A must read for those who want to know how to change the world, for those who wish to "reduce the suffering."ÿ

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A frighteningly accurate portrayal, July 13, 2000

By	"ewrigh2" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

I bought Karen Davis' book at the Vegetarian Summerfest 2000, an event from which omnivores and herbivores alike can gain a lifetime worth of empowerment. I read her book in two days, despite the density of information within. Inspired, curious, and horrified, I checked out the University of Georgia's poultry science department and the local Goldkist "processing" plant (more accurately referred to as a slaughterhouse), and found them to boast of the same atrocities Dr Davis had rightly condemned. It's a must-read!