On October 2nd United Poultry Concerns will hold our 11th annual Mourning Vigil for Chickens, at Giant Food in Bethesda, Maryland. The Vigil will focus attention on the 300 million hens caged in absolute misery in the United States. At the Vigil we will show the excruciating new Faunavision video HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS, based on the widely publicized undercover investigation conducted by Compassion Over Killing earlier this year at ISE-America. Located in Cecilton, MD outside Washington DC, ISE supplies eggs from tortured hens to the Giant Food supermarkets on the East Coast.

Hens kept for eggs are debeaked, starved (force molted), and confined in wire cages the size of a folded newspaper. With 9 birds per tiny cage, each hen has only 48 square inches to live in, and cannot assume a single normal body posture during her life. Though hens need a quiet place to lay their eggs, the eggs you see in stores were laid by hens kept in misery, pain, frustration, and filth. SENATOR ROBERT BYRD of West Virginia has denounced the confinement of these sensitive birds to cages in which they are "unable to spread their wings" and are mistreated as "nothing more than an egg-laying machine." Senator Byrd said: "They suffer pain just as we humans suffer pain."

We will hold posters, pass out literature, and educate consumers about the true price of eggs and encourage people to GO VEGAN. Please join us on October 2nd for our 11th Annual Mourning Vigil for Chickens and help provide "a glimpse into an Inferno as terrible as any of the circles of Dante's hell"-and the way out.

For more information call 301-564-9164 or 757-678-7875. The Mourning Vigil for Chickens is an annual project of United Poultry Concerns.

United Poultry Concerns is a national nonprofit organization promoting the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. For more information visit www.UPC-online.org.