From: wheeler@super.org (Ferrell S. Wheeler)
Subject: Re: Question for ethical vegans and vegetarians.
Organization: Supercomputing Research Center (Bowie, MD)
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 17:57:44 GMT

In article <BvEGGA.H32@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) writes:
>tara@socrates.umd.edu (Tara McDermott) wrote:
>> Free range chickens doesn't automatically mean that they are non
>> cruel.  I believe that the definition of "free range chickens" means
>> that they must have about 2 feet of room to move about.  It does not
>> mean that they have to have a huge airy outside yard to walk around.
>> It just means that they have a token amount of space to stretch their
>> wings and are not stuck in a wire cage.
>
>It's a bit more subtle than that.  Chickens are extremely stupid and even
>if they do have an outside yard to walk round, they will not use it if they
>have to queue to get through the door.  There are "free-range" henhouses
>which are de facto battery units because this psychological barrier keeps
>them inside.  Places that get this one right have the whole side of the
>henhouse perforated by a line of doors so that the chooks can always see
>there's an outside they can get to.
>
>-- 
>--  Jack Campin    room G092, Computing Science Department, Glasgow University,

Jack,

   It is much more subtle than that.  Chickens have complex social
arrangements one aspect of this being a "pecking order."  A chicken
can easily identify where s/he his in this order when there are
only a couple of dozen birds in the flock as is typical in Asian
fowl populations (or even feral domestic chicken populations).
Remarkably, though, chickens can maintain their place in the
social structure even when there are as many as 100 birds in the
flock.  (IMHO this is non-trivial)
  Anyway, a typical "free-range" operation has 10,000 to 20,000
birds in a flock crammed into one building 1-2 sq ft per bird.
This is similar to a broiler house (25,000-50,000 birds), but
the "free-range" house usually has one side made of a netting
material and there are usually some sort of nest-boxes.  Many,
but not all, "free-range" operations provide a pop-hole in the
building.  The large number of birds causes a great deal of
stress in the chickens.  It is impossible to maintain a single
heirarchy with 10,000 animals.  So, the chickens try to form
and maintain smaller cliques (< 100 birds).  These are not
easily noticeable by the casual observer, but they do exist.
Birds only wish to interact with those in their clique because
they know their place.  Also, especially in the wild, flocks
move together with the dominant male keeping a lookout.
  So the clique that sets up shop around the pophole usually
prevents other chickens from venturing near it, for if they
do the dominant chickens of the clique near the pop-hole will
prevent them from coming near the group (and thus the pop-hole).
Thus, the majority of chickens never leave the building.
Having many pop-holes helps to alleviate this  to some extent. 

To reiterate:
  1) "Free-range" simply means no battery cages are used.  They
     are similar to broiler house operations.
  2) Keeping this many birds together is extremely stressful for
     the chickens.
  3) "Free-range" laying hens are almost universally debeaked.
  4) They come from the same hatcheries that all laying hens come
     from and the standard industry practice is to send their
     brothers into a grinder.
  5) Many "free-range" operations are just one small part of a large
     battery hen operation.  This is certainly true with Happy Hen.
  6) "Free-range" laying hens are sent to slaughter usually within
     2 years of birth.

For more details on this type of information/research please
contact Karen Davis at United Poultry Concerns.  Being around
chickens at the UPC sanctuary which are truely free range, I
think they are remarkably intelligent animals.

Take care,

Ferrell Wheeler
wheeler@super.org