Last summer, I interned at a sanctuary for formerly abused farm animals. I made many friends while there––including several chickens, whom I discovered were as sociable, unique, and intelligent as my childhood dog Oliver.That’s why I was so disturbed to learn that my own university’s dining service provider, Aramark, which supplies the food I eat each day at Elon, offers no protections for these gentle, sensitive birds. As a result, these chickens endure horrific abuses.So unless Aramark makes some serious changes, I’ll be joining the growing movement of students across the country working to kick Aramark off their campuses. Chickens raised for Aramark’s supply chain are crammed by the hundreds of thousands inside filthy, windowless sheds. They are forced to live for weeks in their own waste and toxic ammonia fumes that scald their lungs and skin.Bred to grow grotesquely large extremely fast, many birds become crippled under their own weight. Some die of dehydration because their bones break and they can’t reach water.
The chickens who survive these horrible conditions are trucked to the slaughterhouse where they are shackled upside down, shocked with electricity, and cut open at the throat. For many birds, this happens while they are still fully conscious!Aramark has worked on a few animal welfare issues, including eliminating cages in its supply chain, but there are still other foodservice companies that take animal welfare far more seriously. If Aramark doesn't address the animal cruelty in its chicken supply chain, then I hope universities like mine end their contracts with the company.Please sign my petition urging Aramark to adopt a meaningful animal welfare policy that spares birds from the worst abuses they currently endure in the company’s supply chain. It’s time for Aramark to release a policy working to provide birds with more space and a clean environment, shift away from fast-growing breeds of birds, and eliminate live-shackle slaughter methods.
