IS CRUEL ABUSE OF LIVE CHICKENS ANY BETTER THAN PUPPY MILLS? BIRDFLU & E.COLI?

I don't think so. CAL-MAINE ISN'T ONLY ONE.

IS ABUSE OF CHICKENS ANY BETTER THAN PUPPY MILLS? Then you wonder why E.coli and Birdflu?

CHICKEN ABUSE IS PUPPY MILLS. VIDEO

LAKE WALES, Fla. -- Allegations of deplorable conditions and factory farm animal abuse are surfacing against a Lake Wales egg farm.

The Animal Recovery Mission (ARM) held a news conference in Tampa, detailing information about their undercover investigation. They accuse Cal-Maine Corp. of forcing battery caged hens to live, in what they call, a ‘house of horror’. According to ARM, Cal-Maine Corp. provides eggs to Walmart and Publix.

Investigation reveals deplorable conditions, animal abuse at Lake Wales egg farm.

Officials investigate Lake Wales egg farm after video alleges hen abuse

The overcrowding issue has been raised repeatedly by animal-rights groups, which point out that 67 square inches means each bird gets less than half of a square foot of space. A sheet of letter-size typing paper is 93.5 square inches.

Cal-Maine Egg-Laying Hens Suffering

ARM: Investigation reveals hen abuse at egg farm -VIDEO

Allegations of deplorable conditions and factory farm animal abuse are surfacing Tuesday morning against a Florida egg farm.

The Chicken Industry Loves Federal Handouts: $1.25 BILLION

Why would the government do this? In their announcement, the feds were pretty clear: "for surplus removal." In other words, since the poultry meat industry produced more chickens than it could sell, the government will step in and provide a cushy taxpayer bailout.

The broiler industry wants to keep chickens in inhumane conditions, dump massive amounts of pollutants into our waterways, and brush off food safety concerns. On these issues, the chicken meat industry takes a decidedly free-market, anti-government-intervention stance. Virtually any form of federal regulation is frowned upon. However, when it comes to supply and demand, the industry rushes to embrace socialism as quickly as flies to chicken manure.

The industrialization of factory farms has driven many smaller family farmers out of business. Now, consumer demand for chicken meat remains below the number of birds the industry is raising and killing. But rather than allowing the free market to adjust to basic supply and demand principles, the chicken industry last week seemed happy as a pig in -- well, you know -- over the federal government agreeing to buy 138.7 million pounds of otherwise-unwanted chicken products.

Why would the government do this? In their announcement, the feds were pretty clear: "for surplus removal."

In other words, since the poultry meat industry produced more chickens than it could sell, the government will step in and provide a cushy taxpayer bailout. In fact, this is just what that National Chicken Council, an industry lobbying group, proposed to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In a letter from NCC president Mike Brown, he lamented that "over-supply of dark meat is a burden to producers/processors," and pleaded for a federal buy-up. And the federal handout doesn't stop with this supply and demand distortion. The poultry industry receives billions of dollars in indirect agricultural subsidies that artificially reduce the cost of the most expensive part of their business: corn and soy grown to feed billions of birds. Tufts University estimates that the chicken industry alone saved $1.25 billion in feed costs from 1997 to 2005 just from taxpayer-funded subsidies.

At a time when deficit reduction and federal spending loom so large in America's political life, this kind of ridiculous corporate socialism, or agricultural welfare, should be the first to go on the chopping block.

Cal-Maine profits soar, driven by higher egg prices and supply demands.

They accuse Cal-Maine egg farm of forcing battery caged hens to live, in what they call, a "house of horror." The overcrowding issue has been raised repeatedly by animal-rights groups, which point out that 67 square inches means each bird gets less than half of a square foot of space. A sheet of letter-size typing paper is 93.5 square inches.

Deputies talked with a worker who was shown on the video beating an escaped chicken with a stick that looked like a broom handle rather than properly euthanizing it by breaking its neck (officially called cervical dislocation). That man, Matthew Faulkner, 38, was fired by the company and charged with a single count of animal cruelty.

“ARM also witnessed extreme abuse and torture to the hens, who were kicked, punched, thrown, slammed against the ground, beaten to death with sticks, pulled apart alive, and jammed in cage doors where they suffered agonizing deaths from being crushed.” OPERATION CAL-MAINE

"We do a lot of criminal-investigation cases in the state," Couto said. "Many times, when we document felony abuse with chickens, it is overlooked. This is the first time we have ever had a felony arrest concerning abuse of birds."