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Pasado's Story
Pasado Newsletter
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Pasado's Safe
Haven's largest rescue leads to the first conviction of an egg farmer in
U.S. history |
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When Keith
Amberson, an egg farmer in Washington State, decided to close down his
farm, the cheapest way to get rid of his flock was to starve them to
death. He didn't have to pay migrant workers to bring them out, cage by
cage, and gas them in container trucks (the usual method) and he saved
when he shipped the dead birds to the renderer. Renderers, who buy dead
animals, require payment by the ton - so the skinnier the birds,
the lighter the weight, and the less Amberson would have to pay. And
50,000 hens would cost a lot if he kept on feeding them. |
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After weeks of
starving and dehydrating the hens, an environmental disaster soon began:
The hens started laying shelless eggs, then they laid just blood. Then
they started dying by the hundreds, and rats infested the barns. A slurry,
knee deep, of manure, blood, and shelless eggs, poured from the farm into
a nearby creek, causing e-coli form levels, in a formally pristine lake,
to swell. |
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A reporter
from a local newspaper showed up at the farm to cover the environmental
story. When she walked into the barns, she couldn't believe her eyes -
dead hens were everywhere and rats, in broad daylight, ate the dead AND
the almost dead hens. It was a scene out of a Stephen King novel. |
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The reporter
called Pasado's Safe Haven and calls went out to every volunteer we knew -
in 48 hours over 1000 hens were rescued. Sadly, nearly 49,000 had already
died a horrible death. |
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Volunteers
swept the feed stores in a hundred-mile radius to buy every feeder and
waterer they could find. One of our barns was a sea of white and brown
hens, and sadly, many were dying. |
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The worst part
was the hens, who lived their entire lives inside a dark, ammonia-filled
barn, couldn't stand up. Their toes had grown around the wire cages and as
soon as they were put on dirt or straw, they fell over. Their toenails,
2-3 inches long, all had to be cut. |
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Makeshift
"slings", made out of bungee cords and dish towels, served to
train the hens to stand. Volunteers would spend hours rubbing their toes
and feet. Gweneviere, left, spent a month getting therapy before she was
able to stand. |
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The rescue
made headlines across the country and we filed first-degree animal cruelty
charges through the sheriff's department. The Washington State egg farmers
maintained Amberson was only "force molting" his hens, a cruel
method whereby the hens are starved and dehydrated in order to force them
to lay, all at once, as a "production" crop. |
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Luckily, as
the hens regained their strength (we did lose 125 of them), the
prosecuting attorney pursued the case, and won. Keith Amberson wasn't able
to own hens again and had to pay a fine - a slap on the wrist to us. But
at least he didn't get away with it. |
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Gweneviere,
today. What a difference. Did you know that egg farms are never
inspected? No one is allowed to visit an egg farm. Try yourself - you'll
never be allowed. We know what they're hiding. And because we do, we're
fighting for mandatory, egg farm inspections - for the sake of the hens,
and for the sake of the eggs people eat. |
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