Treat all creatures with consideration and respect

Regarding the recent Camera article, “Raising Cane’s plans for restaurant fail,” it’s noteworthy, though not surprising, that among the reasons given there was not a mention of chickens.

While I could not ascertain how many chickens are “used” by the company, here are a few facts: Approximately 9 billion chickens — each one a living, feeling individual — are slaughtered annually in the U.S. (that’s about 24 million each day!). Additionally, about 300 million hens are “raised” for their eggs. While “factory farming” is most predominant, chickens on smaller “family farms” meet the same fate.

Without going into detail or displaying graphic videos, the article “Chickens used for food” from the website of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals paints a horrific but realistic picture: “At the slaughterhouse, their legs are forced into shackles, their throats are cut, and they’re immersed in scalding-hot water to remove their feathers. Because they have no federal legal protection ... almost all chickens are still conscious when their throats are cut, and many are literally scalded to death in the feather-removal tanks after missing the throat cutter.”

Please consider the animal sisters and brothers (other-than-human and human) with whom we share the Earth.

May we make choices, moment to moment, that accord each individual equal consideration and respect, and may these choices lead to a kinder, more just world of equal rights for all; for the animals, first and foremost the right to live free from human-imposed exploitation, harm and death.

— Mark Wiesenfeld, Boulder