On Sun, 21 Dec 2003 09:02:36 -0700, Rat & Swan > wrote:

>
>
wrote:
>
><snip>
>>. Let's go on with it a bit to something I never see
>> the "ARAs" point out, but it's a huge factor to me: sometimes
>> one or more of the hens will single out and beat on another
>> hen.
><snip>
>
>You "never see" it because you spend all your time with your head
>up your ass. It's one of the factors AR literature points out
>every time battery egg production is mentioned -- by either ARAs
>or professional journals for battery egg producers. Why do you
>think chickens are debeaked (have the tips of their beaks burned
>off )? So they won't kill other chickens in the same cage
>by pecking them to death. The people who do it even say that is
>why they do it. In any social species, when the lowest-rank
>animals can't escape from higher-rank animals (i.e. demonstrate
>submission properly)they may end up badly hurt or killed.
>
>Rat

Show me an example of "ARAs" describing the conditions
that make a hen afraid to pull her head out of a corner. How
do you think this might relate to the idea of their feet growing
into the wire floor (or whatever)?