HebElad Cypis Meir
Photography: Anonymous for Animal Rights
Eating eggs is seemingly harmless, since the egg is a natural by-product of the chicken. Once laid the chicken has no use for it, and all that is left is to collect it from the coop. However, the egg industry is one of the cruelest industries in existence, directly responsible for the slaughter of tens of thousands of chicks every day (in Israel alone), holding chickens in the most harsh conditions and using unspeakable practices, some of which have been banned in many countries for years. Through aggressive genetic manipulation, this industry has caused, throughout the years, the emergence of a new breed of chickens laying bigger eggs at an increased rate of 300 eggs per year (compared with 12-24 eggs a chicken would naturally lay annually). After two years the chickens' egg laying rate decreases, at which point they are all electrocuted to death. This is the story of one such chicken.
Within the hatchery lies an egg, one of tens of thousands of white eggs. From this egg a little female chick hatches – small, squeaky, with a soft yellow plume. All around it the other eggs hatch, and tens of thousands of chicks emerge. Our chick is led on a conveyor belt running in a circle, waiting for a hand that will pick it up. Not to be comforted, but to check whether it is male or female. She is thrown into one peer, along with her sister chicks. The male chicks are thrown into the other peer, from which there are only two ways out – through the shredder or choking to death in a garbage bag. Either way, they will not get out alive.
The baby chick continues her journey and arrives at a larger compound. There are no grown chickens there to help her, no one to comfort her. She and her sisters are left there alone, and together they grow there. 
After a short period they are all taken away by people, one by one, and brought to the machine. One of the workers holds the chick by her neck and steadies her head, preventing her from any means of resistance, and places her head in the designated spot. From above the guillotine ascends – a hot metal blade. It ascends relatively slowly, cutting and melting the edge of her beak as if it were a stick of butter. The pain is tremendous and the chick tries to withdraw, cry out for help or resist, but to no avail – the worker holds down what is left of its beak to the scolding blade in order to sear the blood vessels to prevent infection. A few short moments that seem to last an eternity, until he releases his hold and sets the chick down, stunned and in anguish. Her sisters all go through the same procedure. Some are in worse condition – burnt tongue, swelling, a beak cut too short and indescribable pain. Some are in such a bad state that they can no longer eat and drink and die within a few days.
Several weeks later our chick is already grown, her yellow plume has turned to white feathers and a red cock's-comb sticks out of the top of her head. She is taken again, along with her sisters, and thrown into their new home – a long line of cells made of metal grid, narrow and small, piled over each other in stories. The young chicken tries to find some comfort but the congestion is horrible, preventing her from even spreading her wings without hitting the cage walls. She tries to rest a little, but this too is impossible – she cannot find a comfortable position to place her feet on the latticed cage floor. Moreover, the floor is somewhat slanted, and her feet slip and are caught again and again between the metal grids causing her injuries. Bellow her feces are piled up, almost reaching the bottom of her cage, exuding strong odors.
In her new home all she has to do is stand and lay eggs. She will lay an egg almost every day. She looks for a small quiet place to nest in but such a place is not to be found. She desperately seeks some hay or leaves to build a nest for her egg – but can find none. Laying is hard and painful, the laying canal is narrow and her egg is so big, all thanks to "genetic improvement". After laying her egg she has a strong need to incubate it. She tries to find it but with helpless eyes sees it roll away from her, out of the cage.
The nights are very short in the chicken's new home. Daylight is present almost all the time, and the coop is given only a few hours of dark. Sleep and rest is scarce. Many of her sisters cannot cope with the heat, the overcrowding, the pressure and the endless laying – they give up on life and perish.
A year later, when the rate of egg-laying slightly decreases, the coop is suddenly darkened. For 10 days she and her sisters are left in the dark with no food whatsoever. Complete fasting. Again and again they peck at the feeding bowls, hunger and stress driving them mad. After 10 days the light returns and with it the food, and suddenly the rate of laying is back on track. Around her some of her sisters lay dead. They did not survive the fast.
When she reaches the age of two years the chicken is taken out of her cage for the first time since she was placed inside, out into the open air. She and her sisters are led into a truck parked outside the coop, held by their legs, 5 chickens per hand. She is then hung upside down, tied with her legs to a conveyor, and she starts to move. She looks around her in fear – her sisters are also hung by their legs, scared and frenzied. On the other side lifeless bodies fall from the conveyor into a container, piling up on one another. This is the end of the line for her. One moment of light, then darkness. One moment of fear, then peace. And between them – electrocution.
