Animal Voice May 2008 Page 8 145.63 Kb

When Ebrahim and Shanaaz (surname withheld on request) decided to start a small business on their Philippi small-holding producing free range eggs, they had no idea that sourcing chickens with beaks would be an impossibility.

The couple decided to start a free range chicken business as part of their children’s education. “Have you noticed how many children these days are happy to eat something bought from the super-market but are afraid that home-grown produce is somehow dirty and unfit to eat?!” asks Shanaaz.

“Our kids have strong entrepreneurship skills which they get from school. Now they are going to learn how to manage a small-scale farm – just 350 chickens - where animals are treated with respect and produce a product of value.

“Free range has become an exclusive product. It shouldn’t be. Rich or poor, people should expect nothing less.”

With this in mind, Ebrahim set to, building a barn and nest boxes. The compost pits were dug and prepared in readiness for some serious scratching by the lucky hens-to-come, and the chicken runs, including spare runs so as to allow used ones to lie fallow, were made ready.

Only the hens were still to arrive. And that’s when they hit a glitch! Not a single supplier of point-of-lay hens could offer a chicken with a beak.

“One farmer seemed absolutely unable to understand why I would want a beaked chicken,” says Shanaaz. “I felt disgusted when he said to me that debeaking a chicken was for its own good and was like me having my umbilical cord cut at birth.”

Eventually Shanaaz started to believe they would have to settle for de-beaked chickens. But Ebrahim put his foot down. They both believe it is un-Islamic to maim animals. “What we eat has become commercialised as though it is not part of the Earth and is no longer sacred.

“We need to return to an understanding that our food is sacred and we need to be grateful for it,” says Shanaaz. Finally, a solution was found when Vredebest Poultry Farm near Paarl agreed to supply still-beaked day-old chicks and it would be up to the couple to rear them to point-of-lay maturity at 18 weeks of age.

“We can’t imagine a chick having its beak burned off,” says Shanaaz. “It’s like cutting off its lips and its hands. “Part of what we want for our children is that "quality time‟ is not a walk around the shops at Canal Walk. We want them to be part of a family business. We want them to know animals. You cannot respect what you don’t know.”

Current SA Poultry Association figures show that there are 22.8 million laying hens in SA, 97% of which are still confined in battery cages.

Cruel food is as unethical as pornography or slavery - UK Campaigner

Clare Druce, one of the founders of the farm animal movement in the UK believes that supermarkets should not pass the buck when it comes to consumer choice.

“The notion that supermarkets only provide what the shopper wants is nonsense. They tell us that what we want is choice. But I’m sorry, we’re not offered choice when it comes to pornography or slavery because they are morally wrong, and keeping hens in overcrowded cages is in the same category. When it comes to eating well, people should not be feeding on sick animals,” she said. Yorkshire Post, 21 January, 2008

Clare Druce runs the Farm Animal Welfare Network