Thus animals are forced into environments for which
they are not biologically suited. Because the operations are so
expensive, producers are motivated to crowd as many animals
as possible into the systems, since profit per animal is
small. Thus, even though it is casino en ligne  well known that chickens will
lay more eggs if given more space, it is more profitable to
crowd as many birds as possible into cages, yielding fewer
eggs per bird but more eggs for the operation as a whole.
Such methods would be impossible without recent technology.
In the absence of antibiotics and vaccines, the spread of
disease would decimate the animals in weeks. Without
growth promoters< the animals could not be processed quickly
enough to be profitable—broiler chickens for instance,
reach full growth in eight weeks. The rise of confinement
agriculture has, according to its proponents, provided cheap
ANIMAL WELFARE AND RIGHTS
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOETHICS 3rd Edition 213
and plentiful food. For example, the price of chicken has
remained virtually the same for more than twenty years, even
in the face of inflation. Advocates of intensive agriculture
also argue that confinement provides animals with shelter
from extremes of weather, protection from predators, and a
consistent nutritional regimen.