Battery farming of chickens should end

IN all the radio and television commentary on bird flu and in the many dozens of articles I have read on the subject, nowhere have I come across a single reference to the ethics of how the modern factory farmed bird is bred, raised and slaughtered.

Yet many problems arise as a result of the perverse and brutal manipulation and exploitation of animals by humans.

The manner in which chickens are intensively reared (14 billion alone in China) may not be at the root of the bird flu outbreak, but it has contributed greatly to the potential for it to spread rapidly.