Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Saying no to eggs

Staff Reporter

Each egg contains 13.6 per cent protein and 13.3 per cent saturated fat. Dal on the other hand has 24 per cent protein and only 1.3 per cent unsaturated fat per 100 grams

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: By having a human-sized chick emerge from an egg and distribute leaflets, volunteers People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) will seek to draw attention to the cruelty meted out to chickens in modern animal factories and to how people can help stop it.

Easter, a press note issued here said, is traditionally associated with Easter eggs. But PETA has a different and more humane idea.

This idea is what PETA volunteers will try to sell to the public in front of the Secretariat on April 4.

"Eggs are as vegetarian as your chicken tikka or mutton biriyani. They are apart of the chicken's reproductive system. To produce eggs, the birds spend their entire lives in battery cages housed in dark, crowded sheds were they are treated as egg-laying machines. Baby birds have their beaks cut off with a red-hot blade. Young `layer hens' are kept in complete darkness except at feeding time.

"When they reach the egg-laying stage, they are subjected to harsh and continuous light, sometimes up to 22 hours a day. After their tired and worn out bodies stop laying eggs and are no longer useful for egg production, they are sold for slaughter," the press note points out.

`Hyped'

According to PETA, eggs are hyped to be powerhouses of energy but in reality the humble `dal' has more nutritional value.

Each egg contains about 13.6 per cent protein and 13.3 per cent saturated fat. Dal on the other hand has 24 per cent protein and only 1.3 per cent unsaturated fat per 100 grams.

Nutritionally inferior

Not only are they nutritionally inferior, eggs are often contaminated with bacteria, especially Salmonella, one of the leading causes of food poisoning the press note continues.

The symptoms of salmonellosis are similar to flu so they are often misdiagnosed. Eggs also contribute to heart disease and other serious health problems, the press note argues.

"Please do not contribute to the pain and suffering of chickens," the press release quotes the PETA campaign coordinator Rohini Kamath as saying, " This Easter we are appealing to the public: "Be it Sunday or Monday, never eat `Ande'."

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