Wegmans Cruelty
Wegmans Cruelty is a half hour documentary produced by a small investigative team from the organization Compassionate Consumers. Organization members contacted Wegmans Food Markets to try to hold some meaningful dialogue about the conditions at Wegmans Egg Farm, and were then misled and dismissed by Wegmans representatives. The team set out to capture actual footage inside the farm and create a film based on their experience.
The film features statements from Wegmans representatives, interviews with the investigators, and footage of what life and death is like inside of a battery cage facility. Approximately 98% of all eggs produced in the United States come from hens that are housed in battery cages. Often unknowingly, customers are supporting the practices of modern egg farming by purchasing eggs.
Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. is a 68-store supermarket chain with stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia. The family-owned company, founded in 1916, is recognized as an industry leader and innovator. Wegmans has been named one of the 'Top 100 Companies to Work For' by Fortune Magazine for the last several years. In 2005, Wegmans ranked #1 on the list.
The was filmed in 2005. The demand for humane farm animal treatment has come a long way in 13 years. I'm interested to see what their current practice is.
Ok JoAnn posts something from the book of Proverbs that supports those of us who are against this abuse and she is in turn abused by those she is in agreement with?? WoW
"A righteous man regards the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel".
It also says the same life that was breathed into mankind was breathed into every living thing. So yes Jonathan R, they are sentient. Chickens never lived in cages like that by nature, so why would it be good now?
I stop buying wegmans' born free eggs after this documentary. They are never born free. Wegmans just use the gimmick to deceive customers
I just got done watching this show , okja, Lucent and have done much soul searching and have read all the previous comments. My first reaction is profane sadness. I I find it hard to comprehend that any person can think it is ok to treat other creatures as I have seen here and witnessed through research and personal experience. We do it to each other so I see the trend. I can't even fathom the argument that they feel or don't feel because as a human being I can see it is a terrible environment that they are being forced to endure. I can see the hideous acts of cruelty they have to wake up with and die in. That should be enough to know it is WRONG. What is the worst is we as a society have become complacent and pass on the responsibilities to others. We are the others whom should be watching, supervising, regulating, protecting and monitoring what is acceptable behavior. WE LET IT HAPPEN!! If you don't like something don't be complacent but speak out, vote, boycott, Quit, campaign and instill the truths in others that you believe we should behave and treat other living beings. I will start today and try to make a change and hope you will too. Every small attempt forward is so much better than sitting back and watching the horrors envelope our world. Now is your time!
@lolwut ---
>>Those chickens are agricultural products, they are not pets.<<
Aah, got it! They're "just chickens", agricultural products," so we have every right to be cruel & cause them pain...in other words, if I decide it's food, then I can pretty much do whatever to hell I want to it.
No one is trying to make them pets. We are trying to be compassionate people as opposed to some prick that feels it's quite okay to cause undo pain & misery to a living thing because it has something *you* want to eat!
As for whether they "feel" anything...do you? I don't get that impression by what you've posted here. I don't know how to break this to you but in multiple tests of cognitive & behavioral sophistication, chickens outperform not just dogs & cats but also four-year-old human children! University of Bristol’s Dr. Christine Nicol, author of the review paper titled The Intelligent Hen, explains “[s]tudies over the past 20 years have revealed their finely-honed sensory capacities, their ability to think, solve puzzles, draw inferences, apply logic & plan ahead.”
The paper includes dozens of examples of cognitive, behavioral & emotional complexity in chickens-all examples of the animals exhibiting capacities that cannot be explained by simple instinct.
What do you think Grandma did to that chicken when they wanted to eat it? Chopped it's head off, of course. Grandma didn't worry about the feelings of "Chubbie Chicken" when she did that! So maybe it was happy and frolicking when it was alive but it still ended up decapitated.
Buy cage free eggs. This is something that all grocery stores will have to do is evolve with the consumer. If people want cage free eggs and pastured meat then the store will carry it.
There is NO excuse,ever,for cruelty,whether it be animal or human.MY parents had a chicken farm ,chickens came and went from their house to yard. We had a cow for our personal use(milk,butter,cheese. a beautiful vegetable garden. Never had to use chemical fertilizers. Yes it took time.
No,we were not wealthy!OR greedy.Now ,I'm aware of how much has changed.
I choose to eat organic--more expensive?Yes.Life is made up of choices. There are those who could care less about food quality,but must have the latest i-phone ,and every other electronic toy known to man. Social skills? Few!
It's an unsafe world for our children.and yet parents willingly take them to eat junk food at fast food chains.Good food and sitting down to dinner as a family each evening?Can't do that--Soccer,football,hockey practice etc.
So,it gives me hope when I see the number of organic farms springing up in WNY. Farms where the kids have to help and appreciate what a real strawberry,apple,etc,tastes like. Taking care of farm animals and knowing that some of these farm animals are used for meat and will be processed as humanely as possible either by the farmer or a small slaughter house nearby.
In a near perfect world folks would be busy with the important things in life.BUT as I said,each one of us makes choices.
Some of these posts are so black and white. To those who do not think livestock is "sentient," it is not really worth engaging in a dialogue with you folks - years of research, and just basic common sense, would show you to be incorrect. However it is also a bit misguided to presume that supermarket chickens should be frolicking outside, and eating bugs from the dirt. Documentaries like this expose real problem - namely, that animal well-being has been largely (if not completely) neglected in the rapid industrialization of the livestock business. Simply exposing this will hopefully enlighten both consumers and operators, and drive the incorporation animal welfare into future process improvements. I don't believe we have to sacrifice cheap food by introducing a modicum of animal welfare into the process.
I think JoAnna is right. This is a moral question, and God is the only source of morality. It says in Matthew 23:37 "Oh Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets and stoneth them that are sent onto her! How often would I have gathered her children together! Even as a HEN gathereth her CHICKEN under her wings, and ye would not." So our Lord Jesus even acknowledged that chickens are capable of compassion....
I love this video. People at this farm would pressure wash the barns between flocks with a chemical that had a warning, it was not to be sprayed or atomized, yet would be aspirated in the pressure washers. This went on for years, many people became sick from this, definitely acute sickness, possibly chronic conditions. During 2003, they were building new laying house 10, (first of several new barns), lots of welding was being done in the welding shop that didn't have an exhaust or ventilation system, and the shop was inundated with other shops due to expansion and had no doors or windows directly outside. People would become sick in this atmosphere too, especially when galvanized metal was being welded. By strictly enforced policy, employees would be reprimanded and possibly terminated for smoking a cigarette in the welding shop that had no exhaust or ventilation, but that same person would arch 6013 on galvanized, and others in the shop were expected to work in it. Doctors wouldn't believe that the number one company, in the country would subject their employees to such conditions. As far as law enforcement, they were there, definitely in the mid 90s, as a 2year undercover sting operation took down the marijuana king pin of the farm (can't blame anyone for wanting to catch a buzz after working there all day). By marijuana king pin, I mean, he grew pot and sold it to workers, but law enforcement was in the company, undercover, and uniformed, they didn't care about CAFO or OSHA laws, just the marijuana, and the break in, respectively. People were being abused, laws, rules and regulations were not being followed for the welfare of humans too. Despite pleas for help, to the company, the doctors, even OSHA(who warned employees, names would have to be given to the company with time notice before an inspection, incase of a disgruntled employee). Make no mistake, employees were warned, the threat of OSHA, would be career suicide.
What a great feeling of priority the employees felt when a group of people broke into this place and exposed to everyone the abuse being done to the animals there. Or to find there co-worker was an undercover, but wasn't there to right the wrong done to employees, she was there to give out pot tickets. It's a comforting feeling knowing there is a group of people out there willing to risk themselves to expose the abuse of the animals we raise to eat, and that law enforcement will go on a two year undercover sting to protect the employees from a substance much less harmful than the substances they were breathing all day in the workplace. I LOVE THIS VIDEO! Makes me laugh.
One more thing: If watching this really saddens you, then you're ******, and I'll tell you why. The reason this seems bad to you is because you're making the mistake of imagining yourself being treated like that, without also taking into account the fact that these chickens don't know anything else. They don't have computers, video games, cell phones, and entertainment. They don't REQUIRE entertainment to survive, as most humans do. So yes, if I were to be all of a sudden dragged and thrown in a cage, under the same conditions that these chickens live in, as a human being who has enjoyed all of these great things for 26 years, it would be terrible, and I would kill myself and others. But chickens don't go through life as humans do, even if they had all of the amenities that we as humans do, they would be too god damned stupid to know what to do with them. I just don't understand meat eaters who watch this and cry. You're letting PETA and all of the other vegans win.
Processing animals for human consumption is not a pretty sight, but isn't that an aesthetic point, rather than a moral one? It's a no-brainer, of course what chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs, etc. go through is inhumane. Killing any animal is inhumane. If you eat meat, you're part of this, you just have to own up to it and say "yeah, I don't mind animals being treated poorly that so I can eat them." There is no fairy tale way to sugar cote it, they are born for the sole purpose of getting slaughtered and eventually eaten. Period.
Oh God...can't even.....just awful. This makes me question their 'organic food' as well
shocking footage. brought tears to my eyes that this s**t happens daily. this needs to stop. the ceo of these companys that get found out should be forced to clean up these hell holes by hand so that they can see up close the cruelty they forced on these poor slave chickens. i live in uk we have choice of free range but even then i dont touch super market eggs. id rather get from a independent farmer. im lucky as i have friends who keep chickens and ducks. the taste is 10 times better, plus i know they are well cared for. support local farmers stop buying these mass produced eggs. you fuel the fire by keep buying this crap. the only way to stop this is to refuse to buy. i read a comment about it being basically a pointless doc. my reply is i would rather be informed of this. rather than just ignoring the facts. do you think consuming this crap that it wont affect your health. i use to be one of them consumer zombies that eat and drink the crap these companys produce. i stopped when i noticed i always felt ill, tired and never full up, always looking for the next snack. i changed my diet to a more natural balance of fresh fruit,veg,wheat,rice and NO fast food. i feel loads better. i have more energy and dont feel ill and tired. if you put dodgy fuel in a car it wont preform aswell may even damage the engine, thats the same principle with the human body. basically dont eat processed food or fast food as this is where your dodgy dead chickens end up. i cant believe after two years in that hell hole that they slaughter the chickens for meat. lol enjoy your kfc lol. im sure it tastes great hahaha!!!
most of those videos that animal rights nuts put out are doctored
Has there been any official response to this video that anyone knows about? It's shocking.
Always issues that develop from development! :) Industrial food production has a great many issues with it. Being a musician, I'm sure I miss several of the details that are required to advance civilization. I'm also sure that humanity can lose it's greed factor and walk
you all fail to see the propaganda in this WEGMANS is one of the last small business in USA that is doing well so the BIG BIG company's try to make them look evil IF YOU WANT FREE RANGE EGGS eggs or stuff without Monsanto or organic wegmans is waking up to this OVER AND OUT .
So here's a question for the random internet horde (oh man what am I getting into?)
My parents are in their 60's, my dad almost 70. They love Wegmans. They drive over 40 minutes to go to one and eat at their buffet and sit upstairs and watch all the people below. It's like a cafe for them. They make a whole romantic day of it. They've both been really sick lately.
Part of me really wants to give them this information (they would never watch the documentary even if I asked them to) but part of me thinks perhaps I shouldn't. Sigh.
My brother and I are both vegetarian, but we are not evangelical about our vegetarianism. This puts people off and makes people resent vegetarians. I'm not out to convert anyone but I feel a strong protective instinct about my parents.
Only informed sensitive answers please.
Poor chickens... they're so abused that they're docile when handled (they just don't care any more). This is, in some way, very alarming, since most chickens tend to not want to be handled and hand fed... at least not the ones who aren't handled and hand rare by humans. I doubt these caged chickens are handled at all or have contact by humans, which is why I find it strange that they're docile when they are handled. Such sweet beings should never live like that. This is why I buy free roaming chicken eggs. I am researching for local farmers markets for true caged free animals and animal products. Those are the best and one will be supporting cruelty free animal products. You'll also feed the local economy and support local farming communities. Local Farmers Markets are all win. ^_^
They are touching decayed chickens with their bare hands!
FYI: Researchers at the University of Chicago set up a series of experiments with two rats in a shared compartment one rodent was allowed to roam free and the other was trapped in a tiny cage.
After the free rat learned how to open the cage's door and liberate its distressed companion, it did so almost immediately in each trial.
Even when freeing the caged rat offered no social reward - and even when a chocolate reward was offered as an alternative - the free rat still chose to end the trapped one's distress.
The authors of the study, published in the journal Science, claim this is the first evidence of empathy-driven behavior in rats.
"There are a lot of ideas in the literature showing that empathy is not unique to humans, and it has been well demonstrated in apes, but in rodents it was not very clear," said Jean Decety, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Chicago. "We put together in one series of experiments evidence of helping behavior based on empathy in rodents, and that's really the first time it's been seen."
Why do they think that this is different than any other chicken farm? Cry me a river, honestly. I with this had more of a center on America's chicken farming as a whole, not just Wegmans. They're a business. What do you really expect? It's your fault for keeping them on such a high horse to begin with.
I would like to say that this is not how the chickens are treated on the Research Farm. They have room to run, have a huge coop, but, are still at the mercy of foxes/random animals in the area.
It's America's fault for needing things at such a fast, cheap rate. The average person doesn't care how things are made - they prefer to live in ignorance. I'm an outrageous pessimist because I really feel like things are only getting worse and our feeble attempts at "showing people the light" are being lost and not making a difference at all.
Man this ruined my day. I love my Wegmans.
Kinda feels like my cake and brownies are guilty of multiple homicide.