Links

This web page contains links to other websites which are not under the control of and are not maintained by Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them. 

www.disney.go.com/disneypictures/dinosaur/html/

Visit the Disney Dinosaur pages for a visual treat and for background to the film. You’ll see, if you haven’t seen the film, how Aladar’s story has a lot in common with Attila’s.

www.wwf.org

www.ifaw.org

Find out more about how we treat animals. Visit the World Wildlife Fund site or the International Fund for Animal Welfare to get started.

www.ciwf.co.uk

Find out more about how we treat animals on farms. Visit the Compassion in World Farming site to get started.

www.rspca.org.uk

Get the bigger picture from the RSPCA site.

google.com

Use Google or any of the other internet search engines. Try the following key words for your first searches:

cruelty + animals + farming

chickens + battery + rearing

children’s fiction + animals

Alternatively, you can use any of the film titles mentioned in these materials to get more information.

www.thylazine.org/

Something for teachers – interesting resources on animals in literature.

Battery hens are housed in cages (45 x 46 x 41 centimetres high). The cages are elevated to allow droppings to fall to the shed floor, for later removal by front end loaders. The cage floors are angled so that eggs roll to a tray for collection. There may be more than three rows of cages, one above the other. Temperature conditions in the shed are kept at 24°C which induces the hens to lay at a rate 10 to 20 per cent greater than normal than free range hens. At about 60 weeks of age the hens’ productive lives are over and they are slaughtered for chicken stock and soup. Intensive farms also have minimal labour input per unit of production and so there is relatively little supervision of the animals. This means that sickness and injury often go unnoticed by farm staff so that animals may suffer and be deprived of adequate veterinary treatment. However, the sheer numbers of animals produced means that the farm is still economical to run and with losses through death of up to 20 per cent.

Read more at … www.iinet.net.au/~rabbit/essay.htm

Turkeys in overcrowded conditions are prone to aggression and frequently attack one another. This causes mutilations, such as damaged eyes and toes. As a result over 20% of turkeys are de-beaked in order to reduce injuries. De-beaking involves one third of the bird's beak being sliced off with a red-hot blade. Studies on de-beaked chickens have shown pain to be prolonged and perhaps indefinite. Even following de-beaking intensively reared turkeys often peck at one another causing injuries, infection and even blindness…

Having a turkey this Christmas? Read more at www.vegsoc.org/news/1998/turkey.html

In the Library?

Search through the poetry books for the well-known modern poem, Song of the Battery Hen, by Edwin Brock. It will give you an idea of what Attila and her flock had to put up with.