At Buckeye Egg Farm, investigators found numerous birds that had been badly debeaked. Severe overcrowding reduces the hens to “cannibalistic” pecking. The egg industry combats this problem, not by giving the hens more space, but by taking a hot blade and cutting off part of the chicken’s beak. As the Farm Animal Welfare Council in Britain noted in one of its reports, debeaking "should not be necessary in a well-managed system where the hens' requirements are fully met."

Debeaking is an extremely painful process that is done without any pain killers. According to the Brambell Committee, a group of veterinarians and other experts appointed by the British Parliament:

“Between the horn and bone is a thin layer of highly sensitive soft tissue, resembling the quick of the human nail. The hot knife used in debeaking cuts through this complex of horn, bone and sensitive tissue causing severe pain.”

Likewise, poultry researcher, Dr. Ian Duncan notes, “there is now good morphological, neurophysiological, and behavioral evidence that beak trimming leads to both acute and chronic pain.”

For more information on debeaking, click here.