Take Heart!
From Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)

Animal cruelty in a chicken factory farm in a Trappist Monastery

A PETA undercover investigation of an egg factory owned and operated by a Trappist Monastery, Mepkin Abbey outside Charleston, S.C., has revealed appalling conditions in which hens are kept. Mepkin Abbey Egg Farm has 38,000 hens that produce 9 million eggs per year.

These hens are packed so tightly that their bodies are pressed firmly against each other without even being able to spread a wing or turn around. Moreover, these chickens are painfully debeaked and kept in filthy cages for up to two years, during which the abbey periodically starves them in order to shock their bodies into an additional laying cycle.

The irony of it all is that the printing on the outside of the egg cartons claims "a deep respect for the environment... through the caring cultivation of the earth and its creatures" and are marked "Animal Care Certified."

It’s shocking every time we hear about animals being abused; however, in this case, it’s even more shocking since these monks should be examples of being good stewards of God’s Creation. Their lack of compassion toward the hens is a reflection of their hardened hearts in the presence of suffering of God’s animals. Moreover, their false claims on the egg-cartons reflect their lack of respect to caring consumers by deceiving them. It seems the quest for profit has led these monks to mock God’s love for animals.

Read more at Animal Issues