42 / Chapter 2
However, in the majority of agriculture today, humans and ani-
mals have little contact. There is little “animal husbandry” involved.
What contact humans and animals do have often occurs during
transportation and slaughter. This state of affairs leaves little oppor-
tunity to come to understand farmed animals as sentient beings.
Farmed animals face numerous risks in disasters. Cattle and
other grazing animals are affected by weather. Blizzards and fl oods
can strand animals, making it impossible for them to get to food and
water. Hypothermia poses a risk to all animals. Wind and debris in
hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes can cause traumatic inju-
ries. Unusually high heat (defi ned as ten degrees or more Fahren-
heit above the average high) can result in heat stress in cattle. They
also face numerous risks from disease outbreaks, which can “depop-
ulate” entire herds or fl ocks. The value of farmed animals only as
commodities largely determines their treatment during disasters.
There is little public outcry or support for the rescue of farmed ani-
mals after disasters. The USDA, which oversees many aspects of the
animal industry, has no mandate to rescue farmed animals during
disasters.^5 Farmed animals are, quite simply, not worth the trouble.
When a disaster compromises the quality of the products the ani-
mals embody, consumer welfare trumps animal welfare. Thus, fac-
tory farm disasters prompt an examination of how people decide
the moral worth of animals. They also encourage consideration of
the way we establish and maintain the ethical boundaries that sep-
arate farmed animals from companion animals.^6 Nowhere are these
issues more obvious than with chickens.
T
he bird we know as the chicken was domesticated from Indian
and Southeast Asian red jungle fowl around 6000 BCE.^7 Flocks
were fi rst established in China, then India, Japan, and Korea. Begin-
ning around 1200 BCE, domesticated chickens were transported
through Russia to Europe and eventually to the New World. Like
most other birds, chickens are highly social. They are known for the
“pecking order,” which refers to their complex group structure. In
stark contrast to the epithet “chicken,” mother hens are fi ercely pro-
tective of their young and roosters are often gallant in their behav-