Studies have shown that birds experience pain and suffering just like mammals and have complex cognitive capabilities, yet here their casual deaths become an afternoon's entertainment for the family. The difference is obvious. No one has ever heard a coffee bean shriek in fear or seen it struggle to escape as it nears the grinder. In a live-animal market, both the consumer and the consumed have an interest in preserving their own life. Certainly eating more chicken would keep one alive longer than eating nothing, but studies have shown there is a definite link between eating animals and the three biggest killers in the country-heart disease, cancer and stroke.
Turkeys have more fat and cholesterol than many cuts of beef.
Chickens are often contaminated with salmonella and other dangerous bacteria. We maintain that eating these birds is very unhealthy. When I explained that I didn't eat meat, the analogy switched to vegetables. There I was momentarily stumped. Cages were stacked three decks high, filled with frantic, overcrowded birds, nearly all of whom were missing most of their feathers.