by Joe Kirkpatrick

Did you ever think about what that nice, plump, marinated, grilled chicken breast went through prior to  you devouring it? 

Back in my "previous life," I worked for the State of Tennessee  Dept. of Corrections as a counselor.  One of my responsibilities was helping men who had recently been released from prison to get jobs.  For those of you who have never had such  a responsibility, I can tell you it is not an easy one.  Even though these men had supposedly  paid their debt to society, most employers were skeptical about hiring them.  However, I discovered an employer who would readily hire anyone I sent them. ConAgra Poultry. 

ConAgra Poultry was located in Dalton, but they were so desperate for workers, a bus for employees was run up to Cleveland every day.  ConAgra Poultry is a chicken processing  plant.  To be honest, I had never really envisioned what the "processing" of a chicken actually entailed.  Unfortunately, one day my curiosity got  the best of me and I asked one of my parolees "exactly how do you process a  chicken?"  A few minutes later, I  came to believe I had asked the wrong question.  Now, I am about to reveal the trade  secrets he told me on that fateful day years ago, and if you have a weak  stomach, you might want to go on to another article.

The chickens are picked up at various farms, and crammed into cages and placed onto a truck.  Sometimes they are crammed in the cages  so tightly, some suffocate before they ever reach the processing plant.  Also, keep in mind, chickens are warm blooded animals, and when a lot of them are kept in close proximity, they generate heat.  You no doubt have seen a tractor trailer full of mostly live chickens on the highway before haven't you?  On a hot summer day,  can you imagine what the temperatures in those cages reach, especially the ones  in the middle?  When they arrive at the processing plant, the cages are unloaded and stacked at the receiving  line.  Workers wearing leather gloves to prevent them from being clawed, grab the live chickens one by one, tie their feet together, and hang them upside down on a hook.  That hook is then attached to a moving  cable, and the next person Mr. Chicken meets is the cutter.  The cutter's role is very simple - to  cut the chicken's throat.  There is  just one big problem:  that line can  get to moving pretty fast, and if the cutter has an itch and has to scratch,  blow their nose, or etc., a few chickens go by without getting their throat cut.  Lucky chicken you say?  Not quite!  You haven't heard what Mr. Chicken faces  next.  As the conveyor belt moves  into the next room, it begins a downward drop - right into a vat of boiling,  scalding water.  This is to make all of the feathers turn loose from their follicles.  So what, you say, it is only a bunch of dead chickens.  Let's

think back -  remember the ones the cutter missed?  Many of them come out of the boiling, scalding water with their flesh  almost on fire ALIVE!  The parolee  telling me the story told me many nights he would have nightmares about them as  they emerged from the hot pit, convulsing and making a terrible loud screaming  sound from the pain they were enduring.  Next, the conveyor goes into the gutting room, where if they happen to still be alive and screaming, they are gutted alive and their misery finally  ends.

The purpose of me sharing this  gross, morbid story with you?  Last  month, in Cocke County,  Tennessee, near  Newport, after a long investigation, the FBI raided a major cock fight, and arrested a lot of people. Now, I see something terribly wrong with this picture.  First of  all, the FBI???  I mean, folks, this  is a case about putting a few chickens in a ring and having maybe a hundred  people watch them and place bets.  The FBI???  I mean, from some of the names of people arrested, "Bubba," "Junior", "Hound Dog", and so forth, I  don't think these people have Middle Eastern ties!  The FBI???  White collar crime is rampant with  executives stealing working American's pensions right and left and the FBI has  enough manpower to investigate and raid a cock fight in the hills of  Tennessee?

But, the story only gets  worse.  Several of our state  legislators have now jumped on the "cock fighting is evil but chicken processing  plants are okay" bandwagon and have introduced a bill to make cock fighting a felony in Tennessee.  For those of you who don't really know  what a felony is, it means you are sentenced to a year or more in the state  penitentiary instead of just a short sentence in your county jail. 

Do you know what it costs to house each inmate in prison for one year in this country?  Somewhere around $45,000.  Have you read how overcrowded prisons are in this country?  Did you know 1 out of every 12 adult males in this country are already incarcerated in prison  at this very moment?  Did you know  many of those incarcerated are for violent crimes such as murder, rape, sexual  abuse of children, and drug distribution? And now, some of our legislators want to spend money to put guys there who like to watch chickens  kill each other?  And it's still okay to send  millions of chickens a day to a brutal death in a processing plant and that's  okay? Something is definitely wrong  with this picture!

Let me get one thing perfectly clear - I am not a supporter  of cock fighting in any form or fashion, but for the FBI to spend time and money  on it in these times is nothing short of ridiculous.  Furthermore, for legislators to want to  pass a law to SPEND TAX MONEY to put people who participate in cock fighting in prison is even more ludicrous! 

Does no one have common sense anymore?
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