Emissions of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia from excrement and urine are so strong that large exhaust fans must run constantly to remove the toxic gases from the houses. If the fans shut off for more than 15 minutes, hogs begin succumbing to the gases. In the heat of summer, the overcrowded conditions in poultry operations lead to massive die-offs. During the record breaking heat-wave last year in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, millions and millions of hens and broilers suffocated in their packed cages. All the media focused on was the monetary losses were to the owners and growers, not to the miserable deaths of millions of living creatures.
Chickens also suffer from the misfortunes of their owners or growers.
In southwest Missouri, a bankrupt poultry house owner simply walked away and left 12,000 hens to starve and die. Two years later, the skeletons of thousands of hens remain packed in their little cages in a crumbling poultry house overgrown with weeds. Ken Midkiff, formerly a hog farmer, now is the Director of the Missouri Sierra Club A Call for Strong Enforcement of the Federal Humane Slaughter Act In 1958, following overwhelming public support, the Humane Slaughter Act was adopted. In 1978, the Federal Meat Inspection Act was amended to empower USDA inspectors to stop the slaughter line on the spot if any cruelty is observed. Once the line has stopped, slaughter may not legally recommence until deficiencies, whether of equipment, or of abuses by personnel, are corrected.