Change your Chicken Challenge

I've been writing about the human-animal bond, and found that so many people form connections with animals, and not just cats and dogs. There are even two stories in my new book, Faithfully Yours, about a woman who helped her asthmatic chicken, and had compassion for a chicken who wanted to hatch some eggs! So that is why I wanted to share this information with you. The ASPCA is hoping to raise awareness about the plight of factory farmed chickens and how you can help. Introducing: Change your Chicken Challenge! Here's what you need to know:

There is a ton of information on the web about organic products, grass fed beef vs grain fed, having too many hormones and antibiotics in meat and dairy, and buying chickens that have been raised “cage free.” But what does all that mean and why is it important?  It should always be important to know and understand what you are feeding your body, especially when you have kids. But how do you know what is really “good?”

There are some pretty shady foods and labels out there, so make sure you are doing your research.  Even then, don’t be fooled by fancy words and claims. Words like Organic, humanely raised, natural, cage free, free range, hormone free, antibiotic free and vegetarian fed, are thrown around all over the place. But in reality, they do not mean much. 

A great example is “Cage Free.” This is a misleading claim for meat chickens because, unlike egg-laying hens, they are never raised in cages. If someone claims “Hormone Free,” well of course they are, because it is already illegal to feed hormones to chickens. So you aren’t getting anything different than what anyone else has. Another great claim is “Antibiotic Free.” Antibiotics are fed to animals on factory farms as a band aid fix for unhealthy living conditions. However, removing drugs does not alone make for a more humane system.

Over the last few decades, corporatized, industrialized agriculture has largely replaced America’s independent small farms—with catastrophic consequences for animals. While there is no strict definition, industrialized “factory farms” are characterized by extreme confinement of large numbers of animals with practices designed to maximize efficiency and profit, and little regard for animals’ well-being, sentience or natural behaviors. Factory farms often use animals bred to produce unnatural amounts of eggs, milk or meat, causing painful disorders and lameness.

The ASPCA is hopi