November 23, 2006

Today was a horrendous day. Started the day by taking the ducks from the feeding cages into transportation cages, we were transporting 970 ducks to slaughter.  

Had a small coffee break after loading the truck the first time- it takes two loads to bring this many ducks- and heard that 4 had died last night according to the boss, E When the truck returned, we continued loading ducks into cages and loading the cages onto the truck.  M, R, and I bring the second load to the slaughterhouse. While I was loading the truck I noticed one of the baskets’ top hatch could not close properly. I pointed this out to E and he said no to worry about it.  When we arrived at the slaughterhouse 4 ducks from that cage had gotten out, they were still in the truck but had fallen down on a stack that was only 3 cages high.  The person who hangs the ducks upside down found this very funny and was pointing out the escaped ducks to his colleagues.  

After we brought empty cages from the slaughterhouse to another feeding shed to be ready for Monday.  This is AB 's shed.  A met us here, and we made our way to yet another shed to pick up 1000 ducks.  To our surprise (A knew) we were getting 2-week-old ducks.  The shed was split in two: on one side 3 week old ducklings- according to A- and younger, smaller ducklings on the other side.  The ducklings were the most adorable looking things ever, they are bright yellow, extremely soft and the black marking on the head looks like it's just starting to come out making a beautiful contrast against the yellow.

A, R, and I (M was on the truck) herded them into an enclosure we made with cages, about 300 ducklings each time.  During the herding they were being kicked to go forward, not as violently as they did the previous day with the older ducks, but harder than a sweep.  Also close to the enclosure, to be able to close them in, some were just picked up and thrown on the pile.  A and I were in the enclosure while M and R were on the truck.  

I was shown that to pick them up you grab four of the ducklings by the neck, two between the thumb and index finger in each hand, with your hands close together, the trick being so that the person on the truck can come in and grab all four ducklings in a choking motion to throw in a cage.  

They would put twelve ducklings per cage.  The chicks were peeping madly which was a pleasant cute sound, except for the fact that I knew what their future held, so I could not obviously enjoy this.  Many ducklings would inevitably fall from our grips and they would fall on their heads or backs on the ground.  

The sensation of grabbing these little ducks by the neck is extremely unpleasant, their tongue is forced out and they are trying to peep, and the feeling in the hands is of their throats being squished.  We loaded the 1,000 ducklings and brought them to a shed. On the way to this raising shed M was telling me how this shed looks like a dump, that the yard is full of garbage and that the conditions inside are not too good, that the person responsible does not take good care of the ducks.  We got there and the yard was full of garbage and the shed was pretty much surrounded by a lake of mud.  

It was here that I learned that only male ducks are used to produce foie gras and I sadly learned the fate of those born female.  I was told we were going to the incubation shed to collect the garbage and trays used to hatch eggs, which we would bring back to the main farm to clean.  I was told that the garbage included female ducklings and ducklings that were too small or as M and R said, “handicapped.”  

We got there and outside the shed were 5 garbage bags which M said were full of ducklings.  A met us here and we went into the shed with a big heater light where there were 4 big shelving units similar to a filing cabinet. Each had 11 drawers. Inside each of these drawers were many egg shells from which the ducklings had hatched.

From within the drawers came loud peeping from ducklings, which were considered the handicapped ones.  I could see thru the grates that some were even walking around. One duckling walked from one end of the drawer to the other peeping the whole way.  

Into the truck we loaded the four cabinets with the drawers and everything, and then put in the garbage bags, which were also peeping, M said they were peeping but A said, “No, these were gassed” and that the peeping was coming from the cabinets. I asked A why they didn’t use the females and he said that their livers were no good for foie gras-- something about veins or something that grow around the liver.

We brought this load of ‘garbage’ to the farm and R and I had to take care of the garbage and clean the shelves. M left for an appointment with the bank, A went somewhere also.  We brought a few garbage bins from the back of the shed.  The smell of this area was horrendous. I have never smelled an odor so offensive; I almost puked several times. I looked into some of the garbage bins and they were full of dead ducks, on the side of them it is written ‘viande non comestible.’  

R opened the garbage bags one by one, and tiny, bright yellow ducklings were emptied from the garbage bags into the garbage bins. The five normal green garbage bags were about ¾ full.  All the little ducklings ended up filling over half a garbage bin, and when I looked in I noticed to my absolute horror that some were still alive, and then on closer inspection I noticed that pretty much every single one of them was still alive. The whole top layer was moving around and the fresh air must have been giving them some life because the peeps started to get louder. I could see dozens of little eyes wide open staring up at me, and little bodies moving about, some laying on their backs were stretching their legs.

R then instructed me to empty the cabinet drawer by drawer. He pushed over the garbage bin with all the ducklings to my side, grabbed another garbage for himself and we emptied the drawers into the garbage bins-- mine burying alive the bright yellow ducklings, slowly muffling their peeps.  The contents of the drawers were mostly egg shells, but there were also the ‘handicapped’ ducklings (who looked quite healthy) and dead, dried-up looking ducklings. After emptying a few drawers I could no longer see the live ducklings but I could still hear them. I filled up the garbage bin and continued emptying the trays in R’s bin.  

When finished, we set up the pressure hose and R “cleaned” all the trays while I would put them back in the cabinet. Half way through, A came by and told us that we also had to clean the outside of all the garbage bins, which were covered in mud excrement.  So I rolled about 12 garbage bins to the side of the truck--- again the smell is just horrendous.  We had to clean these because the company that picks up the garbage was threatening to stop their services because the garbage bins were too dirty. I saw this on a receipt inside the trailer which said final notice.

R finished the racks then cleaned the garbage bins with the pressure hose, which I then returned to the back of the shed. I could still hear some muffled peeps coming from the garbage bins, but not nearly as many as before. This was about an hour after burying them.  I was now finished for the day.

November 28, 2006

Started at 5:00 a.m.  We went straight away to J’s shed and helped load 750 ducks from feeding cages to transporting cages, 4 ducks per cage.  These feeding cages had this brown plastic bottom to them, which I’ve seen in other sheds but usually just a few of them; this shed was entirely equipped with them.  These bottoms make it very hard to pick up the duck-- about 1 in 10 would have their feet stuck through the holes of this bottom, the ducks would have this big red-- sometimes bloody-- rounded growth that would be stuck through the holes.  The growths were usually the size of large grapes but sometimes almost the size of golf balls, so you really have to tug and twist to get these lumps out of the bottom of the cages.  

When we finished a stack of 6 cages (24 ducks) we would directly roll them outside, and today was very cold. We finished getting all the ducks in the cages at 6:20, and we were outside with them waiting for the truck to arrive, the truck was already late and as time went on the person in charge tried calling different people to see what was going on but could not get a hold of anyone.  

AB finally showed up and was really pissed of when he saw that the truck hadn’t arrived yet, he also tried calling people, and finally they figured out that the truck driver did not know that he had to help out again today, so now he was on his way.  

A showed up a little later and so did the boss. He wanted the ducks to get to slaughter so it was decided that we would transport the ducks with the two pickup trucks.  We quickly loaded the two trucks, and while putting the straps on, the second truck (the big truck) showed up.  R and I then loaded the rest of the ducks onto this truck and we went to the slaughterhouse.

By the time we got to the slaughter house it was a bit past 8:00 a.m., very late since the workers here like to start around 6:30-7:00.  Waiting in the parking lot was a truck from L’Oie Naudiere, with very beautiful, big grey geese, waiting their turn for slaughter.  

The truck driver then brought me back to J’s to help replace the ducks that had gone to slaughter.  MR had brought the ducks, and they were half done putting them into the cages when we arrived.  In one box, I noticed lots of blood on the white feathers of the ducks and noticed that one of the ducks had a big chunk missing from his beak-- on the upper left side, a jagged penny sized hole with 2 or 3 big cracks that jetted out all the way to the base of the beak. It was bleeding profusely.  We finished loading up the ducks and finished the day at 11:30 a.m.

November 29, 2006

Started work at 5:00 a.m. and as usual started by loading ducks from feeding cages of the main farm to the traveling cages, which we would bring to the doors and M and P (the guy who has been trucking for us since our truck is broken) would load them onto the truck.  We loaded 960 ducks.  It took two loads, and we finished taking out the ducks while M and P brought them to the slaughter house.  

Again today I saw two ducks with almost identical wounds, the area where the wings feathers meet the body, both ducks had very big gashes and both were bleeding profusely, I suspect that their wings were caught in the cage bars and as a result of struggling received the wounds.  

Today was M’s last day of feeding for this rotation. He was hoping for a bonus because bonuses are given to the feeder for ‘good’ livers.  I’m not sure how this works yet. I saw two dead ducks this morning. I’ve also been noticing that many ducks have bloody anuses or in this area.  I would guess about ¼ of the ducks have blood in this area and are missing their tail feathers, I think it must be from rubbing against the back of the cages, but I wonder if this is an effect of force feeding since it seems to be in the anus, kind of scabby and protruding out.

When we finished taking out the ducks and loading them unto the truck, R and I had a break that we took in the trailer.  He told me that his last day will be on Friday (the week his rotation for feeding was supposed to begin).  He hates S, always calls him “le croté,” always quite comical.  He hates working here he hates getting covered in shit and smelling all the time. He is always complaining about the smell since I first met him.  

I asked him about E, from yesterday. I asked if he knew who that was and he said it was one of the bosses from the slaughterhouse.  He said he saw him around once in awhile and that on a few occasions he had helped pack up ducks for slaughter.  After about 15 minutes, A came in and told us to go get a pressure hose to clean some plastic trays, which are used to hold the eggs.  

We picked up the machine and returned to the farm and cleaned the trays. (These trays are different from last Thursday, as these are for egg delivery.)  When done we returned them to S, who was there in the incubation shed and told us to bring back about 11 trays of eggs that were no good.  S told me to come check something out in the next room.  

In this room on a table were maybe 500 eggs that she was inspecting and she showed me the way to discern the bad eggs from the good ones.  The room was a little dark and she had a flashlight apparatus, which she would hold to the egg.  If the egg was no good it would be clear; if it was a good egg, you could see veins connecting to a spot (fetus I guess), and if there was a line of blood it meant that the embryo had died and was no longer good.  

There were 4 big incubators in this room, and she opened one of the doors and she showed me that she returned the good eggs back to the incubator, and the bad ones were thrown out.  I asked why they hatch ducklings when I thought they imported them from France and she explained that they produce as many as they could-- between 3000 and 4000 per week-- but that this was not enough, so the rest are imported from France.   

She then brought me to the area where the hatched ducklings were.  Most hatch on Tuesdays.  They were in the same cabinet that we emptied and cleaned last week.  I asked if the one with little black markings were the females and she said no, that you had to sex them.  But she did point out one that she knew was female because it had a second brown marking behind its black head marking.  I took off my glove and gave her a little pet. She was so soft my heart broke, knowing that tomorrow she would be throw in the garbage with all her sisters to suffocate. I thanked SA for showing me around and left.  

Back at the main sheds, MT had arrived with the ducks to replace the ones that went to slaughter.  It only took about an hour and a half to put all the ducks in their cages.  The stacks were six cages high, and the way M would get his top rack down would be just to push it off the edge, letting it fall to the floor.  

With MT’s cages, it’s hard to get the first few ducks out of their cages, because as soon as you open the door the ducks are so squished that they all try to escape, so you have to quickly grab one wing, yank it out of the cage and slam the door quickly, while the duck you are holding by one wing is madly flapping his other wing.  

Still, some escape, which we usually round up at the end because they immediately go under the cages into the sewage aisle, which is usually about one-foot-high muddy water consistency. In fact, at the end there were nine ducks that had escaped and all were covered in excrement- they looked like brown ducks. The way we got the ducks back was by herding them into a corner then M, A, and S would either try to grab one by the wing or just step on one, usually pinning the duck down by its head or back. Then they would pick them up and put them in their cage.

Mostly there are two reactions from the ducks as they are put in their feeding cages for the first time: The duck will try its hardest to escape-- spreading and flapping his wings and ramming the cage from all sides so that he usually ends up in awkward positions, like wings half out of the cage and beak stuck in between water trough and cage.  

Another reaction is that the duck will just cower and put his head low and pretty much looks like he’s playing dead.  Walking down the aisles after putting the ducks in their cages, you see them in all sorts of positions with wings bent in all sorts of positions.  There are others who have figured out that they can stick their heads out of a slit in the bars.  

At one point I heard S yell, “Tabernak!” and I turned to see him violently slam a duck, out of frustration, into the cage. He slammed the cage as hard as possible. He has a short temper and out of everyone, I notice that he may enjoy being cruel to the ducks.  Since Ch. was not in today, I was done for the day and would start my feeding tomorrow.

Talking with A before going home, I asked what we were doing tomorrow.  He said that we would be cutting beaks off the young ducks we had brought to the shed last week.  I asked why the beaks needed to be cut, and he said because they need to take a little of the end of the beak or else they would grow too long and curve under their lower mandible; he said it is done with scissors. 

November 30, 2006

Today got to work at 5:00 A.M., and as usual we began by loading ducks from their cages onto the truck for slaughter.  We were at E’s main shed, and we loaded 1,000 ducks for slaughter.  I saw three dead ducks lying on top of their cages.  Later on, while loading the truck, one of the women held two of the dead ducks up by their necks and mimicked them, saying, “We want to come too.”

The ducks, as usual, were in rough shape after spending the last 14 days in these cages, with big bumps under their feet and lots of sores on their wings where they rubbed against the cage.  I went to the slaughterhouse with M and PS (he is the one who has been trucking since our truck went out of commission), and we unloaded the ducks and the slaughter began.  

Upon returning, A told us that M R and I would go with him to catch ducks to replace the ones that just went to slaughter, and S would help Pascal with the second load.  On the drive A told us about himself a little.  He comes from Africa and has 9 brothers and sisters, and interestingly he said that of all his brothers and sisters he was the only one that “didn’t make it.” He told us about the desert and riding camels.

He then said something very earnestly that really surprised me. He said that the more you work with the ducks, the more sympathy you have for them, but at the beginning you don’t have time to think about it.  

He also explained the business side of the farm.  He explained that P owns the ducks and pays for everything (i.e. labor, transport, etc.) and gives the ducks to the owners of the sheds. P supplies the labor to feed, and at the end he gives the owners of the shed 5 to 6 dollars for every bird returned to slaughter, and I believe he said they lose 20 dollars on every dead duck.  P gets 100 dollars for every duck that produces a “good” liver. It’s pretty confusing but I’m starting to get an idea of how it all works.

A says that P has yet to make a profit because they are always putting the money back into expansion.  

We arrived at the two sheds, which had 2 floors.  We unloaded the ducks from the top floor of the first shed.  MT was there waiting for us.  The smell of this shed was horrendous, and while I have yet to go into one that smelled ok, this one was noxious. Even A and MT who have been working in these places for a long time said how bad it smelled.  R, M and I went on the top and MT and A were below on the truck.  

M was in a foul mood and short tempered, and took this out on the ducks. The ducks in here were really hard to herd, as they would not move and often would just pile in a corner or against the wall huddled together in fear. M would yell very loudly at these ducks and slam on the wall.  Some he just kicked very hard in anger as if kicking a soccer ball.  

When we got them in the enclosure near the doors, I saw him slap very hard the head of a duck against the wall, and when trying to make room to open the doors (once the ducks were in the enclosure) he would just slam the doors open while there were still many ducks stuck behind it, violently hitting and squishing ducks against the wall.  

We then started handing ducks down to MT and A We were bringing three at a time, and MT said as a joke, “Come on, give me six,” so M started grabbing six at a time, but the second time he dropped one down, which fell to the ground about 15 feet.  He brought six ducks at a time about 4 or 5 times.  

A and MT were really slamming the ducks into their cages and then slamming the door of the cage very hard, so that the ducks were really crammed and had all sorts of parts hanging out of the cages. About 4 ducks fell from the top floor to the ground.  

An old man who keeps an eye out on several sheds in the area showed up to help out a bit. We finished up and R and M want with MT, and I stayed with A to do some inventory. He was talking with the old man for awhile and both were complaining about the person who owns the sheds and how he doesn’t take any care of the ducks, things are broken it’s very dirty etc.

They told me that last time they got ducks from here there were many dead ones, and that the floor of the barn was so dirty with excrement that it was like walking in mud, and they would sink in over their ankles. They said that once there were 600 dead ducks in the shed.  

Even while unloading the ducks, A did not like the conditions of the shed-- only one of 7 fans was working and he showed us one duck and said some of the ducks were burned (I think he meant from ammonia) and turned a duck over to show us how it looked just like a plucked chicken (ie., no feathers). While talking with the old man I blew my nose and there was blood in it.
 
We then went back to the farm and met M and R  A told us we were going to cut the beaks off of the young ducks that we had brought to the sheds last week.  When we got to the shed we went upstairs to where 1,000 ducklings were separated. We made a little enclosure and would herd about 100 young ducks into it, to start cutting their beaks. 

To do this you pick them up by their heads and with a normal pair of scissors would cut off the part of the top beak that was curbing downward.  It took about 3 seconds per duck, and every cut would cause bleeding and a peep/scream of pain.  Then you would drop the duckling on the other side of the enclosure.  A showed us how to do it, and before he left he watched us do a few. When he saw I was picking them up with one hand on the body, he said not to worry and just to pick it up by the head, that I would not rip it off.

Soon after, M went to a corner to get reinforcement for our enclosure and I saw him frighten up a duck, which then fell over. He did this a few times and it kept falling over -it was obviously sick- and then it just fell over and convulsed for a few minutes, then stopped. I saw it convulse some more about 30 minutes later, but then it stopped and I think it was finally dead. This duck had just gotten his beak cut, so I believe its death was a result of the beak cut.

At the beginning R was cutting too much of the beak and M had to tell him to cut less. It took about 1 hour to cut all the beaks, and our gloves were covered in blood. 

We then went to the hatchery. Thursdays are when we have to pick up the hatchery’s ‘trash’ and clean the egg drawers.  There were 4 garbage bags that were peeping waiting outside, and we went in to empty the drawers of the egg cabinet into a garbage bin. 

S and I worked together as I took out the drawer and emptied it in the garbage while she would knock off shells remaining on the drawer and take out the mesh that is stuck to the bottom of the tray.  I would then give the tray to M, who would place it on the truck.  Again there were many ducklings still left on the trays, which were dumped into the garbage with the egg shells.

I counted 23 live ducklings that were thrown in the garbage, peeping all the while, and this is not including the ducks that were thrown out by R, since he was also emptying drawers.  S picked one duckling up and threw it in the garbage and said, “You didn’t cut it.”  

After the trays were loaded we put the garbage bags in the truck and drove to the farm, all the way listening to the ducklings peeping like crazy- it was very loud. When we got to the shed we noticed that a bag had opened and about one hundred ducklings were out of the garbage bag very much alive, walking around peeping in the box that the garbage bag was in.

M said one person should empty the garbage bags while the others unloaded the trays. I unloaded the trays, because there was no way I was going to empty the ducklings into the garbage bin. So R emptied all the ducklings into the trash bin. 

This was the end of our shift, but I had to wait until 2:00 to feed my first lot of ducks.  I went to M’s for about an hour and returned and met CH. in the shed.  He showed me how to fill up the feeding machine, which is to add water and some kind of flour and copper pentahydrate and mix. 

When the mix looks ready, which means not too wet or too dry, there is a knob to try out the mixture, which pushes out the food.  On the monitor you punch in the amount in grams to be administered.  This amount is increased with every feeding.  This feeding, which would have been the 3rd feeding, was at 480 grams. 

I brought the machine over to the ducks and CH showed me how to grab the duck and shove the rod down the duck’s throat.  You have to grab the duck by the head with a finger and thumb prying open their mandibles. When the ducks see you coming for them down the line they do all they possibly can to get away by extending their necks as far as they can in the opposite direction of you.  Or they attempt to turn around in their cage and tuck their beaks between the far lower bars of their cage, sometimes succeeding in turning completely around, which is not so easy in these tiny cages… more on this another time.

When I asked what the trick was to get the rod down the throat, S told me not to worry about hurting the mouth while trying to find the hole, and that it was hard to hurt their mouths so it was ok to be rough. He told me that I just had to watch out while it was in their throat because you can puncture it and kill the duck.

After feeding, which took about 30 minutes to set up the machine and another 30 to feed, I left and quickly went around to the back to where the garbage bins were. I opened one that I saw R empty the little ducklings into and saw that there were still many alive and moving around, maybe ¼ of the top layer.  This was about 3 hours after the ducklings were emptied into the garbage bin.

I picked up the first, closest duckling out of the garbage and quickly shut the garbage lid.  I stuffed the duckling thru my jumpsuit into my coat pocket. I then quickly went in the trailer to punch out and change, and as quickly as I could got in my car and drove away. 

When I was a little down the road I took the tiny duckling out of my pocket and put her on the passenger seat.  Her eyes were open and she was moving a little but looked a little out of it. She was quiet, so I tried peeping as best as I could and immediately she responded with her own peeps, then she would stop. I would wait a few minutes and peep again and she would respond, I then put my hand on her and drove the rest of the way home with one hand on her and peeping most of the way to let her know I was there.

I got her home safely and we played with her and got her food and water. She drank lots but didn’t really eat more than a few nibbles of soaked dog food and leafy vegetables.  She was moving around and looked to be in good shape.  

December 1st, 2006

Today I got to work at about 5:45 a.m. and went into the sheds to start feeding. I am now on rotation, which means I will be feeding twice a day for 16 days straight.  Then my lot will go to slaughter. I have 80 ducks to feed, but this number will go up to 300 within the next few days. On my next rotation I’ll be up to the normal amount-- close to 1000 ducks.

CH once again helped me fill up my machine. We plugged it in and then we brought it to the area where we mixed water and some sort of flour. For 80 ducks the machine only has to be filled about a quarter full. First you put in about half a cup of copper pentahydrate, then a little water, then some flour, and then mix. There is a button to make it mix one way forcing the mixture downward and another to bring it up. Inside is a large spiral blade which does the mixing.

So by eyeing it (they used to have a balance which CH said made it much easier), we would add water and flour until it was about a quarter full and the mixture looked to be at the right consistency. If the mixture stuck on the sides, it needed more flour, and if clumped it needed more water.

Now it was time to begin. We would bring the machines to the row of ducks and begin feeding them. Like yesterday, I grabbed the duck by the head putting my fingers between the mandibles to pinch the mouth open and shove the pipe down the throat before pressing the trigger, “just like a gun,” CH told me.

Grabbing the ducks is hard to do, as they are struggling like mad to not let you grab them. They try beating their wings (which they can’t because the cages are too small), and they flap enough to get caught in all kinds of positions. Their heads they will usually tuck either in behind them or beside them, getting stuck in between the bars of the cage.

It is difficult to find a way to get the pipe to go down the duck’s throats; the trick I was told is to bring it upward following the roof of the ducks mouth, then when you reach the back of the mouth go kind of upwards and over, then  downward to get over the back of the tongue. It then slides right down the throat. I have trouble, but its getting a bit easier.

Everyone says it takes time and that at the beginning you kill lots of ducks. It’s hard getting the pipe past the tongue. I finished my feeding in about 30 minutes (not including the time to fill the machine). After this I was told I was going to help with the insemination with SA, CH, and S., so we drove to St-Remi or near at least.

We stopped at the store for coffee and lotto tickets and then got to the barn.  Inside the barn were about 700 female Pekin ducks. In one enclosure I saw about 10 more Pekins, which I was told were “spent”: their vent areas (genitals) would not open for the insemination gun.

When I first walked in I noticed a dead duck with what looked liked a cord coming out of her, but on closer inspection I noticed it was her intestines and at the end of them all her guts. I showed S., and he said she must have shit them out, and he told SA while laughing about it. SA got her sperm shooting gun ready, and CH went into another room that I would visit later to collect sperm from the males.

The gun SA was using looks kind of like a glue gun, and the end is fitted with pipettes, which are loaded with sperm. I think she injects about three females with one pipette. She would later tell me that each gun costs $750 and I think she had two with her. I asked how much the feeding machines were, and she said about $25,000 to $30,000.

I was then showed how we would work: S, CH, and I during certain intervals after getting sperm would hold the ducks while SA would inseminate them. The way we held the ducks was by grabbing them by the wings with one hand, grabbing their feet with the other hand, and flipping them upside down and tucking them between our legs. Their backsides would be facing forward, and then we would squeeze tightly with our thighs so that the genitals would squeeze out from the hole. We would then squeeze with our fingers the area until it would protrude and a little hole would appear.

At this point SA would insert her gun and squeeze the trigger while you slowly let off pressure with your thighs so that the inner area would tuck back into the duck. About one in ten times it would not re-enter, so with your fingers you had to tuck it all back inside. Then you grabbed the duck by the wing and let her go on the other side of the enclosure.

There were of course many jokes about the insemination process from before we left to go this farm to afterwards. Things like, “Hey you’re the new guy, if we run out of sperm you will have to provide it…don’t worry we’ll find some Playboys,” and “You better not tell your girlfriend you were playing with all these ‘nounes’ (vaginas).”

They also picked up ducks and said things like “Oh you want it, it feels good doesn’t it, etc. etc.,” I found one comment particularly offensive: S, after pushing a duck’s genitals back into the duck’s body, put his dirty fingers into the duck’s mouth and said, “Here, lick this you pig.”

After our break they brought me to the room that CH was getting the sperm in. It was a room about the size of a small high school classroom and there were 3 rows of 22 battery cages each (66 in total).  In these cages were mostly the male ducks which were another kind of duck: the “Barbarie,” also called a Muscovy. When you breed this kind of duck with a Pekin you get a Moulard, the kind that used for foie gras.

The battery cages were small and the ducks were big. They looked very cramped with not much room to do anything but stand there. Their nails were extremely long, and SA told me that once one attacked CH and jumped right on his face, where he suffered multiple gashes. He showed me the scars.

In the cage that CH was collecting sperm from, there was a female Pekin, which the male would mount for a few seconds. Then CH would grab the male and somehow with a squeeze get the sperm collected into a test tube which had some sore of preservative. CH told me they used the same male for about 8 months then sent them to the slaughterhouse.

SA said these are the kinds of ducks they used to feed and use to produce foie gras. She said it was hell using these ducks, because they are so big and their nails grow so long. SA told me that they need the long nails in order to mount the females. The room was dark and of course very smelly (like all the others) and very dirty. The droppings on the floor under the cages were about a foot and a half high.

I think there were two females in this room: the one CH was using and a second in the cage nearest the door. The females looked very roughed up, with lots of blood on their wings and missing most of their feathers. I asked why they couldn’t let the males out in the room with the females and let them inseminate naturally, but they laughed and said the males would end up killing all the females.

Again, I must express how cramped and uncomfortable the male ducks looked in their cages. The bottom of their cage was just wire, and also they were missing many feathers from, I imagine, rubbing against the cage. We spent about 5 minutes in this room and then we returned to finish the insemination. We finished at about noon.

We then went to another barn not far from where we were to pick up some of the eggs. The eggs were collected by this old man who helps out in this area. We took about 700 eggs, which were stored in a cool room. We then returned to the main farm where S. and I stayed while SA and CH brought the eggs to the incubation shed. I punched out and had to wait there a few hours until I could feed my lot of ducks for the second time.

We punched back in at 2:00 and, S and I went to the shed, where S showed me again how to prepare my feeder. We did his first and then mine. While filling the machines we stand beside it on a raised plank and S usually smokes while preparing his. I noticed how he spits into the machine while collecting the food. I saw him spit into his and into mine no less than 5 times, not as a joke or anything, just because he needed to spit.

He helped me with mine and I went to begin feeding. The duck that was sick that earlier CH had told me not to feed was now dead.  His open eye seemed to look at me, and his beak was very discolored-- a bluish-black color. His head was bent down half sticking out of the cage. I showed S and he said, “It happens,” and that ducks are always dying for a variety of reasons. He told me that 50 of his ducks have died since he started. I said that wasn’t so bad but he said that it was too many and it should be around 15 per 1000.

S showed me (CH was talking about this earlier in the trailer) how to check if the food from earlier was digested or not and, if not, to skip the bird until the next feeding. You grab the end of their throats and feel around; if there is undigested food it will be hard and lumpy, whereas if it’s digested it will be soft.

I started feeding but many were throwing it up right back while violently shaking their heads so that the regurgitated food would fly all over. I asked S if this was normal and he said not to worry about it, that some ducks do this.  About one in every 6 ducks was puking up his food. I was at about 60, when E and his brother G came into the shed and asked me how it was going. I replied fine and they asked how long it was taking me to do 80. I said 30 minutes and that I was now doing 160. They said I was doing a good job and that it would get easier with practice. They told me not to clean my machine because they were going to use it this weekend, and that they would come and get it in about 30 minutes.

I continued feeding, and when I was near the end G came back to get the machine. I had a few ducks left and I asked him too if it was normal that so many ducks were puking up their food. He said no; he said that was hurting them, and it was probably because they had not yet digested their food.

He felt the duck that I was about to feed and he told me, “For example this one should not be fed.”  He then felt the next duck along the line and said that this one had only half digested, so just to give him half a shot of feed.  I asked if that meant that all the ducks that had puked after I had fed them would die, and he replied that probably some would die, but not all of them. He said that if I notice that they’re going to puke that I was to take out the pipe.

He told me not to worry about ducks that would die because he said it was inevitable. He said that ducks would die from all sorts of things, and that sometimes when you feed them they will puke like they were doing this time but with loads of blood also, and that this would happen when something would ‘blow up’ or rupture inside.

CH had told me earlier that some of the ducks would get tumor-like growths in their throats because of being irritated from the pipe, and that these ducks would usually die. If you continued feeding these ducks, the pipe would often rupture one of the tumors and blood would come out. The ducks would die soon after. He also said however, that sometimes if you stop feeding them once you feel the tumors, then after a little while the tumors might shrink enough to start feeding them again.

CH earlier had also explained with S about “tired ducks.” The feeders walk around with clothes pins near the end of the rotation, and they put the clothes pins on the ducks who looked ‘tired’—meaning that they were about to die. They would monitor the ducks for a few feedings without feeding them, and if their condition did not improve they would send them to the slaughterhouse early to salvage their livers-- obviously because they could tell that they were going to die before the 16 days.

They also showed me S’s ducks. Most of them were really panting and gasping for air. They said these were “nice ducks” and that they will produce nice livers. They explained that the panting and gasping means that the ducks are getting really sick and diseased from the food and getting lots of fat. They compared it to a person who just sits at home and eats all day, and fat forms around his heart.

I asked what most of the ducks die from. I’ve asked this a few times to different people and they always say from all sorts of things. CH and S said many will die from heart attacks because they get extremely stressed from being handled and force fed. 

I took one more look at the dead duck that was still in his cage. He seemed to be staring at me. I showed E and told him I didn’t think it was my fault, and that the duck was sick when I started today. E said he figured that was the case because of the color of the bill. I left, punched out and went home for the weekend.

When I got home I saw Chicago, the duckling whom I had rescued from the trash bin the other day, and she was doing great. She had loads of energy and was walking, running around, peeping, eating and even snapping at the dog, who was scared of this and would walk away if Chicago snapped her beak. It was funny. Chicago is so lucky and I’m rooting for her, just saving her life is worth what I’ve had to put up with for the last few weeks, but I hope my efforts can save thousand just like her, because beautiful beings like Chicago do not deserve to be thrown in the garbage to die.

December 8, 2006

Gave ducks a morning feeding dose of 850g and a p.m. dose 860g.  SA told me that a few years ago the shed was infested by rats, and some would eat and kill ducks in cages.  The ducks are very, very sick looking and declining quickly. CH has 5 dead ducks.

During the pm feeding I watched one gasping for air and dying. I watched for a little while: The duck was shaking like someone with Parkinson’s disease. He later died.
The ducks’ heads are all very crusty from food that was spit or thrown up. It actually hurts the hands when you grab them by the head because of this crustiness. One duck is covered in blood, which he threw up all over himself, he was full of blood. The duck beside him is also covered in the blood, as is the floor.

December 9, 2006

Got to work at 6:30a.m. Gave ducks a morning feeding dose of 870g and a p.m. dose of 880g. SA was feeding her ducks and CH was not there yet. I made my machine and Sara and I checked my ducks.

Everyday of feeding the ducks look worse and worse, they are looking very sick. I noticed that CH’s ducks look even worse as well: many ducks can no longer stick their heads out of their cage. They just sit there immobile, and many ducks’ breasts are waterlogged and slimy. They have an oily texture from puking the water that they try and drink. This is one way to know if the duck is really sick. When they are like this we skip the feeding or give half a dose.

One of my ducks had puked up blood overnight and there was blood all over the water trough, cage, and floor, it was a very dark color and chunky. I fed my ducks, CH got there when I was half done and told me that 5 of his ducks died overnight.

Left at 9:30 a.m. and returned at 5 p.m. for second feeding. SA was finishing up and CH was in the trailer. I had 3 dead ducks and about 15 hurt and sick ducks. SA said we would take the worst sick ducks tomorrow to the slaughterhouse. CH had 2 more dead ducks.

I snapped more pictures of dead ducks and random pictures. CH’s ducks as well as my ducks are heavily panting which I’m told is a good sign because it means that they are accumulating fat. I am also told that the ducks are killed by being bled out (hanging upside down) at the slaughterhouse because otherwise it would ruin their livers.

December 12, 2006

Last day of feeding . Counted 48 ducks (out of my 300) with sores on their beaks from getting stuck in the cages. Counted 220 of CH’s ducks and out of these 220, 43 ducks had sores on their beaks. 

A, PD and I picked up 1,700 ducklings that were quarantined from France. There were about 5,000 in the shed. Apparently ducks are quarantined for 4 weeks when coming from France. A and PD kept getting frustrated when trying to put the ducks into the cages because the ducks would try and run away, so they would throw them violently into the cages.

 We emptied the load of ducks into a nearby shed by putting a ramp at the end of the truck. We would then each grab the side of a cage, open the door, and shake out the ducklings. They would fall very hard onto the ramp and slide down the plywood landing all sorts of ways: sometimes the legs or beaks/heads would get stuck and we would have to shake hard to get the duckling to fall out.

December 13, 2006

Today got to work at 5:30 a.m. and went to the shed to load “my” ducks and CH’s ducks for slaughter. None of my ducks died overnight but CH had about 5 dead. I saw one of CH’s ducks taking his final breaths; his head was convulsing, and then a few minutes later he was dead. S put him on top of the cage, and slapped the dead duck on the head as a joke.

I noticed as we were taking out the ducks that many had bleeding feet from being stuck in the cage, with some ducks the feet were stuck so bad that it took a very hard tug to free the foot and it would bleed profusely. The transport cages would always have lots of blood all over them because of this. After loading the ducks we had to go to meet MT to catch and load replacement ducks for J. (Our cages will stay empty for a few days because the slaughterhouse closes for a week for Christmas break.)

MT and his little boy were at the raising shed, while S, M, and I went to the second floor to prepare while MT got the cages ready. We herded our first ducks and I noticed that many of the ducks- no less than 15 of them- had a lame foot, and so many had trouble walking. They dragged one leg behind and it looked very painful.

At the end of the barn I noticed one of the ducks had collapsed and was gasping desperately for air. (I know now that when they breathe like this they usually will die within minutes.)  I asked, “What about this one?” and M said, “Don’t worry about it… it’s gonna die.”  Then he told me to bring it over because MT wanted it. So I brought it to the doors where MT was on the truck, and I gave him the duck. He said, “I don’t want that” and grabbed the duck by the neck and with two hands threw it hard (still alive). The duck landed about 50 feet away.

We loaded almost all the ducks from the top floor: about 94. There were 4 ducks that MT said were too small (and they looked very sick), so we just left them on the top floor. I imagine they will stay there and starve to death.  MT’s son spent most of his time playing on top of the truck mostly with a big metal hook used to pull cages. He was up about 15 feet high. For fun M gave the little boy a duck to hold which he did by the wings for his dad. (This kid is really young like maybe 4 or 5.)

We finished by getting more ducks from the bottom and brought about 250 ducks to AB’s. When we got there we put them in the feeding cages. Outside his shed there was a big garbage bin overflowing with dead ducks. We brought the rest of the ducks to J’s, which we put in his feeding cages.

I’ll mention again- as always- when the stacks are placed at intermediate space, to get at the top crate, it is just pulled or pushed off the top, slamming the crate with the ducks in it onto the ground.  We filled the cages. There was one extra duck that S stuffed into a bucket where the duck was stuck with just his head sticking out.

M and I then went to get the remaining 300 ducklings from the raising shed from yesterday. At the shed, we set up a pen, and M went on the truck while I passed him 4 ducklings at a time. Like A did yesterday, M had trouble putting the ducklings in the cages. Some would run out of the cages when the doors were open and 2 ducklings fell off the truck. This frustrated M and so he would grab the ducks and throw them violently to the back of the cage.

We brought the ducklings to the same barn as yesterday, again made a ramp with plywood and dumped the ducks from the cages. At one point one got away by sliding off the side of the ramp. M jumped over and ran after him, but slipped and swore. When he got the duckling he angrily threw the duckling hard overhand- like a baseball- into the ground and said, “That will teach them to get away.”  End of day.

December 14, 2006

Started at 6a.m. M, S and I went to bring plastic containers to transport baby ducks back to SA’s. After this we drove to St-Remi to meet MT to load 1000 ducks from R’s. Once again, this shed—the lower floor of the furthest shed (there are 2)—had a horrible stench of ammonia. There was one dead duck near the entrance. MT took a few steps like a football player and kicked the dead duck which flipped over a few times. He did this as a joke and said the duck was stiff.

Again many of the ducks—about 20—had lame legs and were severely handicapped and hardly able to walk and were dragging their wings. All four of us made our enclosure and started herding the ducks. MT is always very rough with the ducks and kicks vary hard at the ones struggling to walk at the back.  He picked up one of the smaller ducks that was lagging behind by the wing and threw him very far to the back of the barn saying, “I don’t want to bring this one.”  He always says this about small ducks and won’t bring them, even though he is just transporting them.

As there were more and more ducks packed into the enclosure, S picked up a few of the ducks and threw them violently into the enclosure, one so hard that it hit the doors of the shed 10 feet away head-first, making a loud, thumping noise. 

M and I passed down ducks to MT and S, who went onto the truck to put them into the transport cages. We passed 3 ducks at a time and they would stuff in 6 ducks per cage. When S gets frustrated he slams the ducks into the cage with extreme force (like with an overhead sledgehammer motion). Then he slams the door of the cage and forces it shut, even though parts of the duck will be stuck between the cage doors.

The second herd it was just M and I, and he got frustrated because the ducks were not moving fast, so he kicked one very hard and from underneath. The duck was launched into the air and stopped when he hit a post about 5 feet high. M also kicked another duck very hard later on to force him into the enclosure. 

I saw one duck that was nestled down beside a dead duck. I noticed him when we first got there, and after 3 herdings he was still laying there beside the dead duck, even after being trampled by about 200 ducks. It was as if he were grieving, or trying to comfort the dead duck. On the fourth herding, after all the ducks again trampled over him and the dead duck, this duck also died.

For a little while, I went on the truck with S and put the ducks into the crates. It is quite difficult to put 3 ducks at a time into the crates, especially the last 3 ducks, because the crate is way too small for 6 ducks. After putting in the first 3 ducks they all try to scramble out of the crate. Meanwhile, you are trying to stuff in the last 3, which are flapping their other wing and trying hard to escape.  MT often slams overhand (sledgehammer motion) his ducks into the top cages of the stack. 

We brought these ducks to our shed, for A’s gavage. M, S, MT, A, and I put them into their cages. Again top rack of crates was pushed off to slam to the ground.

We finished at 11a.m., and to my surprise I was to go with R and E to the airport to pick up day-old ducks from France. They brought me because they want me to know the route because they want me to do it at some point, because A is about to go on paternity leave.

On the way, R smoked 3 joints of pot, talked about the $6 million investment that they received and how they wants to pretty much double production.  The foie gras products sent to the U.S. are driven over the border to NY in a Cube van weekly and then flown to other areas because this is much easier for inspection.

R told me that once somebody force fed a duck until it exploded: While feeding, the person blocked the mouth and kept feeding the duck to see what would happen. He said they thought it would blow out of the ducks ass, but instead he told me that the duck became bigger and bigger and blew open at the breast. E laughed and R said, “Oh yeah, didn’t you do that too?” and E said yes, that he got really pissed off at a duck and did the same thing with the same result: The duck opened at the breast.

He told me how a few years back, a shed burned down with 600 ducks inside. Also on our site there use to be another feeding shed that burned down. I’ve also heard of other raising sheds burning down. Also the slaughterhouse burned down once and they had to ship all the ducks to or near Quebec City for (I think) several months. Told me how on Sept.11 after the plane attacks, all flights were grounded and a plane importing ducks was grounded in Halifax. A had to drive down to pick up the ducks and drive all the way back. They were laughing, saying how horrendous the smell was and that thousands of ducks died in transport.

Talked about a disease that young ducks get, usually when they are about a month old, that makes the ducks run around with their heads tiled backward. Their heads are tilted backward facing upward toward the ceiling. (Since then I saw this many times.). 

They asked me if I had cut beaks before and I answered yes. They said that sometimes it’s gross because they accidentally cut off the beak at the base or halfway up, and blood squirts everywhere. I asked why this happens and they said it was because they work really fast.

At the airport, we went to the Air Canada cargo area and had to wait 30 minutes for the vet inspection. She came back and said that they were good to go. E and R thought this vet was beautiful and made lots of rude comments. We then had to wait for UPS, who takes care of more paper work, to make sure everything runs smoothly with customs and logistics. This sounds like an essential service according to E and A, etc.

When all was ready we backed the van into the cargo area and a forklift brought us lots of boxes of ducklings that were all peeping like mad (114 x 2, plus 1 box).  The papers say that it cost 10,000 Euros for the cargo. We quickly loaded all the boxes into the van.

We drove them to AB’s shed for quarantine and emptied all 4500 bright yellow baby ducks into the shed. Giant groups of the little ducks swarmed around the food and water immediately. AB came into the shed with his parents and girls who were playing with the little ducks. I wonder whether this is okay, considering this is supposed to be a quarantine shed. If these ducks had any sort of avian flu or anything, maybe little girls should not be playing with them.

The ducklings were from: 
La Couvoire Seigneurtrie, B.P. 8 44116, Viellevigne, France. (This is from memory so it might be off.)

Also, S and M were yelling at each other all day. At one point they were in each others face and M made a fist and was about to hit S. Soon there will be a fight for sure.

December 27, 2006

M’s brother started today. He is 15 and is being paid under the table. Today while I was on the truck loading he was puking for 20 minutes from the smell. He was very sick and everyone joked about it and teased him throughout the day. Today started by loading 600 of A’s ducks for slaughter. I noticed he had many dead. I counted 7, one was covered in blood, and two had food still stuck in their mouths and you could see it full even in their throats. It looks like they died even before being able to swallow.

We then went to catch ducks to put in cages at J’s and the remaining would go to fill M’s cages. We went to BR, and here there were about 2000 ducks in the shed.  Loud noises to herd them, and on several occasions S picked up ducks and threw them toward the front. One hit the plywood barrier very hard. He was also kicking them to move them forward. 

Once while I was holding ducks and they were arranging cages M took one of his two ducks and put its face in the sexual area of my duck making grunting noises and saying perverted comments for about 30 seconds. S decided to kill one duck that was a little wobbly and small. He picked it up and I tried to follow to get it on film. Holding him by the feet, S slammed the duck’s head against the wood feeding station: it convulsed a few times before dying.

Later on, another duck was to find the same fate but since there was a kid around, S twisted the duck’s wings together so it could not get away and left it beside the enclosure. As M, his brother and I left, I saw him take the duck and smash his head against the concrete around the silo. 

We put 7 ducks per cage; they were very, very squished.

Brought ducks to J; he had a pile of about ten dead ducks in the corner. I saw one duck I put into a feeding cage had a horrific-looking mouth, with the upper beak cut halfway and the lower beak had a big curve. I showed J and he said that he has seen much worse and that they have a name for ducks like these: “Jean Chretien.”

One duck got away and fell into the sewage pit below the cages. He was covered in feces, and J caught him in a net and washed him with a hose. We then went to help finish putting about 400 ducks in the main shed that M will “gavage.” The ducks are dirty. 

Next went to quarantine shed to get 1,800 month-old ducklings, putting 12 per cage.  I saw after that one was killed, M’s brother asked what to do with it, and A said to leave it there. M’s brother said that someone had stepped on it and broke its neck accidentally because they were packed into the enclosure too tightly.

We then brought these ducklings to BR As usual to unload we made a ramp and opened the cage doors and made them fall onto the ramp. S took one and threw it at JD (who was not on the truck), and JD then threw the duck to M’s brother like a hot potato.

December 28, 2006

Today I got to work at 5:00 A.M. and started by loading up the rest of A’s ducks-- around 450-- to bring to slaughter.  He had 5 dead ducks that I saw.  After we loaded these onto the truck we went around to the back shed to load E’s ducks. We loaded his ducks to fill up the truck, which A and JD brought to the slaughterhouse while we finished putting the rest of his ducks in crates. 

He had about 5 or 6 dead ducks, which he puts on top of the cage and I imagine brings them to the garbage later. We then had a break while waiting for the truck to come back from the slaughterhouse. We next loaded up the truck with the rest of the crated ducks.

We then had to go get the remaining ducks at BR’s to fill up M’s 900 cages, and the rest went to fill E’s cages. At BR’s we set up an enclosure and started herding the ducks. I went up on the truck to start and would take ducks from M, AX and JD and put them in the crates. S. did this also. We would squish 7 per crate, and it was tough to fit this many in a cage as they were very tightly squished together.

On a few occasions S slammed birds into the cage while swearing at them. I also saw JD slam birds into a cage while swearing. On at least three occasions ducks fell from the top cage to the ground. While herding, JD yells very loudly sometimes just inches away from the ducks, and also picks them up and throws them to the front. S also throws them but more violently and not aiming at all. Sometimes they crash into the wall or cages. AX also yells loudly at the ducks and I observed him on several occasions kicking the ducks forward.

In the second to the last herd, S saw a duck that was too small and picked it up brought it to the wood feeding station, and while holding on to the duck’s feet, swung the duck 3 times, smashing the duck’s head against the wood; just caught this on video. He told me it was because the duck was too small. He then said that the same would happen to 3 other ducks that were too small but we put in a cage anyway. He said they would just kill them at the farm.

(Later on while cleaning the incubator carts I noticed in the stacks of empty cages in the feeding cages were 3 of the small ducks just left there. They did not put them in cages and I don’t know what they will do with them… kill them somehow I imagine).

AX found another dead duck and threw it with the others. We then left. M put five dead ducks into the back of the van and we drove to the shed. We unloaded the cages and while the others put the ducks in their cages, JD and I went to the hatchery to get the “garbage” (female ducklings and egg remnants). There were 5 full garbage bags.

We brought the garbage bags to the garbage bins at the main shed and JD emptied them into the garbage. In total there were 5 garbage bags all full of female ducks. It pretty much filled up the entire big garbage bin. I then cleaned all the enclosure (where the eggs are hatched: it is drawer-like). While cleaning Robert came out of his shed with a dead duck and said it was all blue and that it must have choked in his cage. 

December 29, 2006

Today I got to work at 7:00 a.m. and first went to insemination in ST-R, with M, A, CH, AX, and JD.  I first went with CH to help him with getting sperm, only for a few minutes since we wanted to finish early. So I brought over the first sperm tube and started turning the females. AX would pass us ducks that had been herded into an enclosure and A would inseminate. At one point M, as usual, stuck the head of one duck into the genital region of a duck that JD had turned and said “lesbians.” Also, M started playing with the genitals of the first duck that he turned, rubbing it in an erotic manner while moaning and joking around. While rubbing the genital area he said “Hey A, there’s no genie coming out.”

Afterward we went to pick up the eggs from the week that are in a storage room a few farms down the road. We dropped A off at the farm and the rest of us went to Parent to get about 2,100 ducklings from quarantine and bring them to a raising shed. The quarantine shed was very dirty and the ducks were too. The ammonia smell was very strong making it hard to breathe.

I got on the truck with MT and the others would herd the ducklings into the enclosure and pass us them to put in the crates. They would pick up 4 ducklings at a time by their necks and pass them to us, and we would put 12 ducklings per crate. MT is very rough with the ducks: he slams them into their cages. For the cages on the ground he rarely bends over, he just throws the ducks into the cage. S also does this.

Sometimes to be funny, or just because, he will from below the truck throw the 4 ducklings he has into a cage, but the ducks often miss the cage and slam against other cages.

Among the last herd was a duckling that seemed sick and S put it on top of the crates that were being used as the enclosure. It stayed there for 10 minutes. AX said, “This one is dying,” and S said “yeah, just leave it there.”

Near the end of putting the last ducks into the cages, JD picked up the duck, brought him to the side of the truck, shook him, and threw him on the ground. He then looked at him and saw that he was still alive so he picked him up and (like the other times A or S have killed ducks while holding them by the feet) swung the duck to hit his head against a steel-barred barrier. Twice we looked at him and he was still alive, so S then slammed the duck’s head twice against the concrete bottom of the barn, and threw him on the ground.  I noticed that the duck was still breathing and bloody for a few minutes, then stopped breathing.

We got to the farm and parked the truck about 10 feet from the door and set up a ramp and made a hall with empty cages and plywood. We then started opening the crates and grabbing the ducks by any manner and throwing them out of the crates. These ducks were soaking wet, they were covered in feces and urine and also mud from the awful conditions of the quarantine shed. Even the ducks on the top crates were just thrown down to the bottom of the truck.

From the base of the truck to the top crates was at least 2 feet over my head. They were thrown by any manner: grabbed by the legs necks, heads, wings, body and thrown 3 or 4 or 5 at a time.  They would land on their heads legs all sorts of ways, bouncing off the truck. If they fell on other crates, they would simply be kicked off toward the back of the truck toward the ramp. Getting near the back of the truck, hundreds of ducks would be on the floor, with other ducks landing on them from the crates above. I noticed that some ducks had broken legs when walking into the barn, and AX, who was mostly near the ramp would say “this duck is hurt.” I heard him say this at least 5 times. He asked me once what to do with a duck that could not use one of his legs and I said to put him in the barn with the rest.

While emptying the ducklings from the crates on two occasions I found dead ducklings, both which looked as if they had suffocated inside the crate. I gave both of them to MT telling him, “Here’s a dead duck.” Both times he took the duck and threw it over the side of the truck where it landed beside the shed. They stayed there after we left; no one picked them up.

As a joke while emptying a cage, S purposely threw ducks on me while I was unloading ducks at a lower level. We emptied all the cages in about an hour. We then left and I had to bring the cleaned incubator carts to SA’s with S, and that was the end of the day. When bringing the incubator carts with S, he told me he did cocaine, speed, and smoked pot in large quantities. This was something we all new because he seems to always be high; he can’t keep still and has this facial tick where his jaw moves from side to side. 

January 1, 2007

I went in to feed for M this morning at 3 a.m. When I got there, Robert was just stumbling in with a beer in his hand.  He was drunk from New Year’s celebrations and was coming in to feed.  He told us that he had a duck that had gotten stuck in the cage and died.  There were 2 dead ducks, and I noticed one duck had only one eye.  The other eye was crusted, and where there should be an eye there was only a thin membrane, which looked dark behind it, and the duck could not see thru this membrane.  When feeding I grabbed one duck who was raw and bloody from rubbing up against the cage. The raw area was about the circumference of a coffee mug. 

January 2, 2007

Today started work at 7:00 A.M. Got there late and went straight away with CH, SA, and S. When we got there I went with CH to watch him gather sperm from the male ducks.  He wrote a “V” on the cages of the males who were not giving sperm. I noticed about 8 or 9 cages with the V written on them. Two of the females have big sores near their wings and were bleeding after being mounted the first time. 

I watched as CH collected sperm from 10 ducks and then took the tube of sperm to SA on the other side and began ‘turning’ the ducks.  I was ‘turning’ with S (who was extremely hung over).  One female I turned over had a scab over her whole genital area, and I still had to push out the cloacae. The scab would crack and bleed.  It was about the size of a hockey puck.  S was throwing the ducks over the side of the enclosure very hard where they would land with a thud, and SA had to tell him to put them down more gently.

I was waiting for A for a ride home, and I went into the shed which had M’s ducks.  I went down the middle aisle and noticed two dead ducks. I saw again the duck with only one eye and the other eye that is crusted and has a membrane over it.  I also saw that there was a dead duck on the ground that was there since at least when I was there feeding on Monday morning.

January 3, 2007

Today started at 6:30 a.m. and first learned that M had quit. S was fuming because he had to feed for him this morning.  A and I went to meet MT and another man that was with him in Lacolle to load about 1,000 ducks to bring them to the feeding shed. We first went to load from the upper floor. At the entrance there was a wheelbarrow with 3 dead ducks, and I saw in the shed was another dead duck. We then started picking up the ducks to pass down to MT and his friend who were putting them into the crates, six per crate.

After emptying this shed we went downstairs and made another enclosure by the door and herded some of the ducks into it.  When I walked into this shed I noticed that one of the ducks had something wrong with it and I noticed that it had a disease that E told me about at the airport: The duck’s head was tilted backward onto his back facing towards the ceiling, and could hardly move, but when he did he could only move backward.  I asked A what we were going to do with this one and he said we would bring it. I said that it was sick and he said that it was ok, that it would still be able to be force fed so he picked it up and brought it to the cages.
 
Near the end as I was giving MT 3 ducks he saw that one of them was small and he said, “I’m not taking this one” and threw the duck back into the shed. A said, “Take it anyway,” but MT said no.  Then A said, “Well I’m not killing it,” and MT said, “Well it will die in the shed anyway.” A then joked that maybe someone will have it for a BBQ. 

We brought the ducks to be caged first at J’s. He needed 143 ducks, so we unloaded this many and put them in the cages. When we first got there, outside lying on a stack of cages was a dead duck whose mouth was jarred open filled with feed. This duck must have died while being force fed.

We then brought the rest of the ducks to the main shed and SA, A, S and I put them into the cages. These ducks were very aggressive and hard to put in the cages. SA said it was the fault of the people in the raising shed because they did not go into the shed enough, so that the ducks were terrified of humans. Everyone was frustrated with these ducks and S was slamming them into the cages with all of his force. One duck had died during transport. I noticed that someone had put the duck on top of the cage. When I went back a few hours later the dead duck was still on top of the cage, with ducks under him and heads sticking out beside him.

January 4, 2007

Today got to work a few minutes before 6. I went outside and got the bins and brought them to the hatchery.  We then opened the incubators, drawer by drawer, and took out the ducks that had hatched and put them in the white bins.  Many drawers had many eggs that were not hatched and some drawers had the majority of eggs hatched. We could also see many that were in the process of hatching with part of the shell gone and some were half out of the shells, while others you could see moving. 

We took all the ducklings that were dry and put them in the bins, counting as we went along. We also took the ducklings that were wet and put them in another bin which we put under a vent that was blowing air to try and dry them. After taking out the ducklings, SA sexed them. She threw the males into a bin that was in front of me and the females would be thrown into another bin beside her. 

I had to declaw the males with a pair of scissors.  I noticed one duck was doing the same thing as the adult duck yesterday: holding its head tilted backward looking up at the ceiling.  After finishing SA and I took a break, and CH arrived to help us finish.  When we finished the break, SA said we were going to kill the females, so she asked me to hold the garbage bag as she emptied the ducklings into it.  After filling a bag, CH put in the nozzle of the CO2 container and pressed on the lever, but harder than was needed and it scared everyone because it made a loud noise and almost blew up the bag.  This made him laugh. 

After filling three garbage bags with baby ducks and gassing them we continued declawing the rest of the ducklings.  After we finished we went back to the incubators to see if any of the ducks hatched and quite a few had.  CH and SA took them out and would tell me how many, which I wrote down in SA’s book.  Some drawers had16, while others had only one or two.  They would also throw into a bin the eggs that were starting to hatch, and at the end I noticed this bin had quite a bit of blood on it. 

SA and CH then went through the wet ducklings and separated the ones that were too wet and the ones that were dry enough.  The wet ducklings went into a bin for garbage and the other wet, but acceptable, ducklings were sexed: females going in with the “garbage” ducklings that were too wet, and the males going into the bin in front of me for me to declaw.  SA did a final tally and it came out to exactly 2000 ducklings: about 1300 males and 700 females.

SA and CH then put this half of the female ducklings into the garbage and gave it a shot of CO2. We then loaded up the male ducklings into the van and I drove them back to the main shed where MT was waiting for them. I then returned to get the incubator carts, white bins, and “garbage.”  I brought all this back to the main farm in the back where the garbage bins are for the dead ducks.

I took out all the garbage bags of female ducklings. I could still hear peeping from 3 bags and noticed that most of the garbage bags obviously had not kept the gas since they were deflated They were like this at the hatchery.  I placed all the bags beside the garbage bins and A came out and emptied the bags. 

He noticed that most of the ducks were still alive and said, “oh no,” he didn’t like emptying the ducklings while they were still alive, but he did anyway. I would estimate that half the ducks were still alive. 

I then brought the van around to the other side and with A took out the incubator carts. He showed me the trick to cleaning them and I cleaned them in about 45 minutes.  Before leaving I went back to the garbage and the ducklings were still peeping. I grabbed three of the out of the garbage and put them in my pocket.  I then left quickly. 

January 5, 2007

Got to work at 7:00 a.m., and SA, A, and CH were waiting for me to go to insemination.  We jumped into the van and went around to the back of the shed to pick up the empty black egg trays. We parked where the garbage bins are and got out to get them. Then I noticed that there was loud peeping coming from the garbage and was horrified to realize that the ducklings that were thrown into the garbage yesterday were still alive.

I moved the garbage can out of the way and opened the lid, and I saw that a dead adult duck from the feeding shed was thrown on top of the ducklings and that the majority of ducklings were still alive and moving around.  They were moving around and peeping madly. I could not believe it. My heart sank and I was almost sick. 

On the ride I told myself that I would make sure to get good footage and grab a few more ducks as soon as we got back, but for the second time a feeling of nausea over swept me when I realized that it was garbage day- of course- and that they would probably be gone by the time I returned.  When we got to insemination I decided to do all I could to get it over with quickly and turned the ducks as fast as I could. I hoped for no breaks since A was with us. We did not take a break and finished quickly. 

When we first got there I went with CH to watch and sort of help as he collected sperM Again the same females looked roughed up: stumps for wings, giant scabs, and as soon as they are put in the cage with the males, they become bloody where the males’ long claws opened up the scabby wounds. 

The males are starting to decline in their sperm production and CH needs to go into the other shed to get more from the males that are being trained and will replace these ones soon.  The ones in the other shed are from California. They told me they were from California, because they needed some when French border was close because of bird flu.

When the first tube was ready, I brought it over to SA and started turning the ducks with A  I am starting to know certain of the females. Also, every time we send some into an enclosure because they no longer “open” (meaning the gun can’t be inserted).  I believe that today we sent 4 or 5.  Also A got the one with the giant scabby growth the size of a hockey puck, and he was grossed out. SA opened that one and the duck was inseminated. They told me that it was champignons that did this: fungus, and there are a few others that have this fungus but not as bad, maybe an inch diameter or something.

There is also one duck which I got and have got her before whose whole underneath area is hard and the size of a softball or even bigger. I showed SA and she said, “Yeah, something is wrong with that one,” but we inseminated her anyway. There are about 5 of them that have deformed feet or feet that do not work correctly, and they limp around. We finished very quickly considering there were just two of us turning the ducks, and we went to pick up eggs and returned to the farm.

The whole time I was praying that the garbage truck had not yet passed, but my heart sank yet again as we approached the farm. I saw the garbage truck in the back emptying the garbage bins. So as soon as the truck stopped, I said I would hurry over and bring the dead ducks from the insemination to the garbage, and I ran over.

When I got there I noticed that the garbage with the ducklings was neatly arranged and I opened the garbage to see that it was already emptied. I almost cried. I then noticed that I could hear peeping coming from the big garbage truck, and I looked on as 3 garbage bins at a time were emptied into the back of the garbage truck. Dead ducks were hurled through the air into the truck. I was almost sick and I thought I would puke.  I felt horrible and I didn’t think I could go on working, but I knew I had to for those ducklings.

So I returned to the front, and with CH drove the eggs to the hatchery. He was talking but I could hardly respond. I actually felt like I was going to puke.  After dropping off the eggs we returned to the farm and loaded up the incubator carts that I had cleaned yesterday. CH helped me load them and I brought them to the hatchery where SA helped me unload them. I then talked with SA, and she told me how the vet/inspector came recently and gave the hatchery a failing grade. It actually received 30%, and to pass you need 80%. I captured the conversation on film. She talked about how the boss would call her a few weeks before inspection and that she would clean and arrange things for the inspector. She also said that if an inspector went to the farm that they would close it down immediately until it was cleaned up, because of all the feces and dirt.

After I went back to the farm and ate lunch. I had to feed for CH this afternoon so I started at 1:30. I first took some pictures of ducks that were dead. CH had two dead since the morning feed. I also took pictures of a duck’s foot that was deformed. This is a good example of how many of the ducks look when we go to load them from the raising sheds.

E. said that they become like this when the ventilation is no good because of the ammonia.  Also, I tried to take pictures of underneath the cages, where it is so dirty and under one row of ducks the ‘rackleur’ does not work to push the sludge into the pits. It has not worked since before I started feeding and it is now full-- almost overflowing. I stepped in it to see how deep it was and it came to almost the rim of my boot, maybe one inch under. It is bubbling madly which gives off noxious fumes, and the smell when I have to feed ducks on both sides of this row is disgusting, noxious. 

I also tried to take a picture of the duck with no eye but S was in the shed with me so it had to be done without a flash. I also filmed S feeding some of his lot. 

January 29, 2007

Got ducks from DY. While herding the ducks, S was kicking them very hard with enough force that some would be kicked several feet in the air and some would be kicked at least 20 feet. At one point S, pissed off, picked up a duck by the neck and threw it to the doors about 50 feet away. I caught this on video.  He did this to several ducks. S was also kicking ducks to get them to move forward. Both workers were also swearing at the ducks and yelling loudly to get them to move forward 

January 30, 2007

Today we loaded from J’s and did insemination. Loaded many ducks whose feet were stuck in the bottom of the cages, and saw a pile of 5 dead ducks at J’s.

During insemination, I saw a duck who had some of its genital area/insides hanging out, bloody and trailing about 4 or 5 inches behind it. While herding ducks, I noticed about 5 ducks who were severely bleeding from where the wings meet the body. They seemed to be molting, and I noticed other ducks were pecking at these ducks. One duck’s beak was covered in blood and feathers and kept pecking at one of the ducks.
Later S turned the duck who had her genital area hanging out. SY looked at it and said he was going to kill it. He put the duck on the ground, stepped on her back, grabbed her by the neck and twisted her head around about 5 revolutions. We heard a terrible cracking noise, and Sylvain then threw her a few feet away onto the ground. The duck was flapping both wings but unable to move very far. She ended up flapping enough to move a few feet. She stopped breathing after about 5 minutes.

During a break, MRX said that there was a problem today at R’s shed, the heater had broken and R never went in to clean or feed or anything, so 300 out of the 1,000 ducks were killed. He said that the ducks were up to their neck in excrement. SY also knew about this and said that the bigger ducks had killed the smaller ones by pilling on top of them for heat.  MRX said that the ventilators were not working and that the smell was horrendous. This is not the first time something like this has happened at this shed.  I had heard stories of the past where 600 out of a thousand were killed this way.

SY said that next week he will kill the ducks that are not laying or will not lay. There are about 30 of these. He says he will also kill the ones that have trouble walking that do not lay because they cause ‘traffic’ for the ducks we inseminate, as they just stay by the enclosure. He has been saying he will kill them for a few weeks now, but this time he told MRX, so I believe he will kill them on Friday by breaking their necks in the same fashion as described above.

One duck could hardly walk and seemed to have a broken wing. While she walked the wing was dragging on the ground, when she was turned by S she had an infection and SY said to never mind her. The duck had trouble walking away and a few minutes later we noticed that with all this trouble, she also had an egg that seemed stuck and she could not get it out. S said as a joke to SY, “Go help her,” and SY replied that she was “on her own with that dirty ‘ass.”  I asked if she would be able to get it out on her own and SY said he didn’t think so. They were laughing at the sight of the bird who was struggling terribly to walk and lay the egg at the same time.

January 31, 2007

While cleaning bins I saw midway through that in one of them was a dead duckling who was probably forgotten there.

Loaded ducks from top shed SA and I handed them down to S and MK.  Mr. B was also there, and he would help us herd the ducks. The last 2 times he grabbed recycling blue boxes and would punch the ducks with it and sometimes he would throw the boxes on the ducks to get them to move forward.

S was looking tired and getting frustrated with the ducks and was handling them roughly, on several occasions he grabbed ducks that were crowding each other in the corner and jumping over the enclosure by the neck and throw them to the other end of the enclosure, a distance of  about 15 feet. 

Putting ducks in cage at beginning S lost a duck, I saw him catch it and while walking back to the cage he violently slammed the duck’s head against the wall twice, and swore at the duck upset that it had got away. I’ve seen him do this on many occasions before.  When a duck gives him a hard time he always slams them into the cages.

I noticed a very small duck, who, while he was in the enclosure, would try and stay with the others, but every time the mass moved one way or another, the small duck would get trampled and often pinned down on his back, but he would get back up every time. This little duck tried his hardest to get away from us and follow the mass of ducks.  He looked terrified of us but committed to survive. I filmed him and S noticed me looking at him. I said that he was small, and S grabbed him and threw him into a cage. When we unloaded at D’s, this duck was dead.
February 5, 2007

Started today with -37° C weather and loaded cages onto the truck from AB’s feeding shed and brought these ducks to the slaughterhouse. Outside AB’s were 4 big garbage bins, all overflowing with dead ducks, and also a freezer beside the bins was covered with dead ducks. We brought the first load to the slaughterhouse. I saw the inspector just seemed to be looking around, looking at ducks that were being hung by the feet. I also was looking and saw one who was bleeding heavily from the wing area.  We returned to AB’s to get the remaining ducks and stopped at J’s and SY’s to get their fatigue.
 
Loading ducks for AB with eleveur (raiser). Near the end, the eleveur pointed out one of the ducks from the enclosure and said, “This one is too small.” He was motioning towards the duck and told me and SN to kill that one.

I wouldn’t and said, “Pass it to S, he’ll kill it,” but instead SN took it, and-- like SY does to kill ducks-- stepped on his back and twisted the neck around about 3 times. He then threw it (we were on the second floor) down to the ground.

When first herding, one duck died while the others climbed on top of him. He breathed slowly for maybe a minute and then died. When I came back the eleveur had taken him away.

At one point I was passing down ducks to S and one of the wings hit him in the face. He got very angry and took a big swing, and with a closed fist punched the duck 4 times in the breast as hard as he could, making loud thumps with each punch. The others all saw this also and we all just kind of looked at each other thinking that was wrong.

Today I saw S punch at least another three ducks very hard while putting them into the cage. I also saw him take one of the ducks as he had him by the wing and very violently slam him against the side of the cage while swearing. He was also putting the ducks into the cages with lots of force, often just throwing them into the cages.

Putting ducks in cages, at AB’s one of the ducks had a massive gash on his beak, and there was blood all over him and all over the duck beside him. One of the workers took him out and put him into the crates that were going to J’s, since there were about 25 extra ducks they put this one back and said to give it to J. I’ve seen them do this also with small ducks: if they have extra they will pass it on to where the crates are going. There was blood everywhere from this gash.