Jane’s Story

by Paul Shapiro

Animal Guardian, the publication of the Doris Day Animal League, Spring 2003, page 23

Jane enjoying the warm sun and the ground beneath her feet.

Like many, I've lived with animals for much of my life. In fact, dogs have been as much a part of my life—if not more—than many of my human friends. I've come to know their individual personalities, likes, dislikes, and most importantly, recognized their desire to live free from suffering.

While understanding this about dogs is self-evident to myself and other animal advocates, some, like myself, have more difficulty feeling the same bond with those animals with whom we never come into contact—except at meal times.

I still remember my first time in an egg farm. I entered the facility—a typical commercial egg farm that confines hens in small wire cages—with other members of Compassion Over Killing (COK) to document conditions and provide aid to the hens. Intellectually, I recognized that the hundreds of thousands of animals around me were suffering. Yet because the birds were so unfamiliar to me, I didn't emotionally feel their misery.

It wasn't until we found a hen who was stuck in the wires of her cage that I began seeing these birds as individuals. Jane, as we later named her, couldn't access food or water as her wing was pinned. She had struggled so hard to free herself that her wing was dislocated. After carefully freeing her wing, a COK investigator removed Jane from the cage while another offered her water.

Peering through the viewfinder of the video camera, I saw Jane, who seemed half-dead with her eyes closed, drop her face into the cup of water. We had no idea how long she had gone without a single drop. Instantly, her eyes shot open, and she voraciously gulped water for several minutes, pausing only to breathe. Finally, relief.

I looked past Jane at the other hens and, for the first time, could feel their frustration and misery in being confined so intensively that none could flap their wings. Because of Jane, instead of feeling distant from the hens, especially given the incomprehensible numbers of them in a single place, I was keenly aware of each animal and the fact that they were suspended on wire above pits of their own manure, never to touch earth, never to see sunlight. I saw them as individuals.

After leaving the factory farm, Jane's wing had to be amputated, but she wasn't going to let that stand in the way of enjoying newfound freedom. Jane still managed to jump on bales of hay to roost at night, and dust-bathe and forage with her friends during the day.

Many of us have come to appreciate the individuality of the dogs and cats we allow into our lives and would do anything to defend them from cruelty. While most of us will never go to a factory farm ourselves, we can each think of Jane and her individuality and spirit, and realize that all animals deserve a life free from suffering.

Paul Shapiro is Campaigns Director of Compassion Over Killing (COK), a nonprofit animal advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. Working to end animal abuse, COK primarily focuses on cruelty to animals in agriculture. To learn more, visit www.cok.net.