As many of you have seen on our FaceBook Bedtime live feeds, we were given a rare and wonderful opportunity to pull twenty baby chickens from a poultry farm. These twenty will live the good life and will tell the story of the one hundred and twenty thousand chicks we couldn’t save.

Through saving these babies I have learned more about factory farming than I ever cared to, and my eyes have been opened wide to the immense cruelty that exists behind closed doors. Like most of us, I always thought that chickens get to live some semblance of a nice life before being killed. I would think that at the very least they would get to eat and play during the day, and sleep warm and safe at night. But apparently, tremendous thought has gone into how to get chickens to grow as absolutely huge as they can, in as short of a time possible, even if that means that the chickens have no quality of life at all.

120,000 chicks arrive on a truck, in crates. When the truck arrives, the chicks are thrown out of the crates, into the warehouse. There are no windows or skylights in these football field size warehouses, and the chicks are intentionally kept in the dark, so they don’t burn off any calories. They are kept on their own feces, and the ammonia burns their eyes and lungs. After a few weeks, they go blind and have tremendous difficulty breathing. They are fed a chemical food that makes them incessantly gorge on food all the time. With the constant eating and the genetic engineering to grow very fast, these babies are full grown at only seven weeks old and sent to slaughter. It is a life of suffering from beginning to end and the only mercy in their short lives is the moment they are cast out of their bodies to go to a better place. And every single one of us who sits down to a chicken salad, or thinks chicken is the “healthy” white meat is paying for this cruelty to be imparted on our behalf!

The twenty chicks that we were able to save in Nashville are living a much better life. We saved them before real damage was done, so they can see and breath. Even though there is nothing we can do to reverse genetic modification, they have room to exercise, which builds muscles and increases circulation, which will keep them mobile for as long as possible. They are eating organic food that will give them the right nutrients but won’t increase their weight gain. They have Sun Chlorella Algae Super Food in their water which will boost their immune systems. And in a short time, their quarantine will be over and they will go outside. For the first time in their lives, they will feel grass under their feet, fresh air on their faces, see the sun and the sky, and they will get to pick flowers, chase bugs, lay in the sunshine, and enjoy dust baths. They all have names and they are all loved, safe, happy, and alive!
Because they are genetically engineered to be so enormous, they probably won’t make it to between seven to ten like most chickens. We will most likely see mobility issues and trouble breathing because of the gross pressure on their heart and lungs. But no matter how long they survive, each and every day they are with us will be filled with dignity, fun, safety, comfort, respect, love, and compassion. They will be seen as beings, not objects. They will be accepted as family, not belongings. They will tell the truth about what goes on at these poultry farms. And they will help us open hearts, change minds, and beg for mercy!