Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs / Davis, Karen

Many Americans have made the choice to eat less red meat. For some, it is simply a health decision; others are choosing to become vegetarians for ethical reasons. Another factor is that books such as Jeremy Rifkin's Beyond Beef (1992) have exposed unsanitary processing conditions and alerted readers to the environmental consequences of raising and maintaining large cattle herds. Davis now targets those who eat chicken, turkey, or eggs with her scathing indictment of the poultry industry. She is president of United Poultry Concerns, an animal rights and animal welfare advocacy group, and she has previously written a vegetarian cookbook, Instead of Chicken, Instead of Turkey (1993), featuring "alternatives to traditional poultry and egg recipes." Upbraiding those who breed and raise poultry, Davis documents the inhumane conditions of factory farming, explicitly detailing the lives and deaths of battery hens raised in tiered brooding trays and of broiler chickens. She also charges that so-called free-range chickens fare no better. Bolstered by unyielding conviction, Davis argues her case with passion.