Group Offers to Hold Presentation on Eggs' Cholesterol and Cruelty for Winners of 'Be a Good Egg' Contest
For Immediate Release:
January 9, 2013
Contact:
Shakira Croce 202-483-7382
Dallas, Ga. -- Burnt Hickory Elementary School has just been named a winner of Discovery Education's "Be a Good Egg" Contest, a program offered in partnership with the American Egg Board. And to counter the one-sided promotion from the egg industry, PETA has written to administrators at the school with a request to supply students with further information about egg production, including its cruelty to the hens who spend their lives confined to tiny cages and the health risk inherent in the high cholesterol levels of eggs.
"If kids knew how chickens on egg farms suffer their whole lives in cramped battery cages, they'd realize that no egg is a 'good egg,'" says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "PETA is eager to help Burnt Hickory Elementary School ensure that its students get all the facts about food production—and not just what the egg industry wants them to hear."
In addition to being loaded with artery-clogging cholesterol, some eggs are tainted with salmonella. What's more, chickens on factory farms spend their entire lives crammed into cages, stacked one on top of the other—and because male chicks don't produce eggs, they are discarded at birth, sometimes thrown into garbage cans or grinders while they are still alive.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
PETA's letter to Principal Joy Viness follows.
January 8, 2013
Joy Viness
Principal
Burnt Hickory Elementary School
Via e-mail
Dear Principal Viness,
Because your students are participating in Discovery Education's "Be a Good Egg" contest, we'd like to suggest that they receive a balanced perspective, with information from PETA as well as the egg trade. I'm sure you will agree that young people should be aware of all aspects of food production, including the truth about the welfare of chickens used for their eggs, which Discovery Education has neglected to present. Please consider a few of the reasons why cultural icons ranging from Carrie Underwood to Bill Clinton to Russell Simmons are urging young people to consider the benefits of an egg-free vegan diet.
Virtually all hens used by the egg industry are confined to filthy sheds containing row upon row of tiny, multitiered wire cages. Between five and 11 birds are crammed into a single cage—each bird lives in a space that is smaller than a letter-sized sheet of paper. They never get to breathe fresh air, feel the warmth of the sun on their backs, or engage in any natural behavior.
Under the cages, pits full of urine and feces saturate the air with the stench of ammonia and burn the birds' skin. To prevent the birds from pecking at one another out of stress and boredom, farmers cut a portion of each hen's sensitive beak off with a hot blade—without using any painkillers. Male birds—who are useless to hatcheries because they don't produce eggs and are too small to be profitably used for their flesh—are ground up alive or tossed into trash bags to slowly suffocate to death. When hens are "spent," at about 2 years of age, they're shipped to the slaughterhouse, where they have their throats cut while they're still conscious.
More and more people, especially young people, are rejecting such cruelty and adopting a vegan diet (one that's free of eggs, meat, and dairy products). This is not only a humane choice but also a healthy one.
Just one average-size egg contains about 213 milligrams of cholesterol—more than the 2010 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's recommended limit for an entire day. The human body manufactures all the cholesterol it needs, and each additional 100 milligrams of cholesterol that you consume by eating meat, eggs, or dairy products—the only dietary sources of cholesterol—adds roughly five points to your cholesterol level, which increases your risk for a heart attack.
About 70 percent of the calories in eggs are from fat, and most of that fat is saturated fat, which raises your risk for heart disease, strokes, and other diseases. Tofu, soy milk, beans, nuts, whole grains, broccoli, and other vegan foods have plenty of protein without the health risks of eggs. I would like to remind your students why eating wholesome plant-based foods instead of eggs and other animal-derived foods is a healthy, humane, and environmentally friendly option.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
Nina Kahn
TeachKind
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)