By Karen Davis, PhD and Holly Cheever, DVM Society has every reason to applaud the strides that are being made against cockfighting in this country. Last year, voters in Arizona and Missouri banned cockfighting, leaving only three states to go. Given the AVMA's strong stand against cockfighting , it is deeply disappointing that the association has refused to take a stand against a practice that is every bit as cruel as cockfighting and one that puts many more birds in a state of continuous suffering. The practice, which is known as forced molting, involves the starvation of entire flocks of hens by the egg industry for purely economic objectives. During the forced molt, food-deprived hens peck desperately at empty metal troughs and are driven to pluck and eat each others' feathers to obtain nutrients.
Countless hens die from the stress.
When food is finally restored to the surviving hens, many of them choke to death in trying to swallow it after having been starved for so long. Forced molting is a blatantly cruel practice that should be illegal. It is so stressful to the birds that it impairs their immune systems, predisposing the hens and their eggs to Salmonella infection. The AVMA is similarly aware of the link between forced molting and foodborne illness. This should be a call upon the poultry and egg industry to eliminate forced molting as a necessary step to disease prevention.