Is my husband crazy?!

[fasschicks]

We lost a chicken for the first time this week from a fox attack. A neighbor saw it and intervened. So, only one chicken died.

My husband cut out the breast meat that wasn't bitten into. He wants to eat it. My thoughts are YUCK. And it really seems unsafe (rabies, diseases, etc).

What are your thoughts? Is it safe to eat? what do you do?

Fass

 

[Jesusfreak101]

He nuts seriously rabies and other illness are transfered throw saliva and then to the blood stream by the time the hen passed it could have been through her entire body. Eta sprry just notice the spelling lol was distracted.

 

[N F C]

The 'yuck' factor alone would be enough to put me off the idea.

I asked DH for the male side of things and he said it would be ok if it was thoroughly cooked.

Me? I still say yuck, lol.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Thats it all men are gross lol but most of us knew that. I am with northflchick no way no how. My dogs killed 12 birds i know they dont have any illeness the hens still got buried/ went bye bye. I was not going to eat that nope cant do it wont do it.

 

[bobbi-j]

If the meat was not touched, it's probably fine. Personally, I wouldn't eat it, but I think it would be safe.

 

[member 373180]

So sorry for you and your flock, lucky your neighbor was there.

Two biologists here saying no way would we eat it. First the contamination with bacteria and viruses from the fox, the bloodstream could bring a lot into uninjured tissues - normal cooking (even really well) won't kill some of those things.

Also, that poor chicken will have been pumping out stress hormones, fighting to get away and getting bruised - this won't make for meat that tastes good. Aging might help a little but you definitely shouldn't do any aging with the potential contamination.

Sorry!

 

[Free Spirit]

I just want to add that if you have more chickens make sure they are protected. The fox will likely come back.

 

[easterchickenz]

Honestly I wouldn't, I know it sounds like a waste but like "Jesusfreak101" says it's better safe than sorry! It's hard to say what that fox could have.. I do know from experience that once a predator finds food somewhere it will be back! We learned the hard way with a determined group of foxes (we own a Rottweiler Lab cross that LOVES his chickens, in a good way). He has been the best protector around especially seeing how we have lived completely in the woods and predators just are something that happens in the woods, everything from raccoons, foxs, opossums, skunks, you name it. They all tried to get into our coops and well we had really amazing luck between our dog running them off and keeping them out of the coops with how the coops were designed. Them foxes though were the main trick for us.. I have NEVER seen a dog so depressed as our dog was while that fox was snatching them one by one and he wasn't fast enough to run them off before breaking in grabbing and running off with them. Thankfully lets just say my Uncle put an end to the fox problem and after that we didn't have problems with them!

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Easterchickenz j wish my dogs where like yours

. But my cats are that way we lost one hen because the cats werent in the yard with the hens and now they wont leave the hens alone its amazing how some animals are.

 

[easterchickenz]

So sorry your kitties have been naughty! Cats sure can be rascals sometimes! Thankfully our neighbor had lots of dogs mainly those pesky Pugs that had a real death wish when anyone would drive by, but for the most part they would all be indoors. They had to have at least 15 dogs indoors at one point! It was CRAZY they always had a new dog in their yard! Although they had an outdoor for the most part Great Dane named Josie that would like to friendly visit us sometimes and that was okay at first until she started getting aggressive and expanding her territory to our property when we would ride our bicycles. We lived in the country and should have ever right out there to ride our bikes safely without worrying about our safety but she would actually get to the point where she would chase us all the way home and get aggressive towards our chickens which I think our dog would have taken care of Josie if she wasn't so big.. I could tell our dog wasn't a fan of Josie "friendly visiting" but a Rottweiler vs a Great Dane the Great Dane won so our dog would let her have the run of the place while she was there. Once that happened we had to put an end to that! Life on the farm is rough sometimes but when a dog starts going after other life critters on the farm that's NOT okay! A couple BBs later she stayed at home, although our neighbor hit the roof when she found out about it.. It wasn't like we were "hurting" her dog.. if anything that dog was hurting us and our birds!.. and to think that same neighbor lady with the dog was accusing us of stealing her chickens.. Like why would we want to steal her birds?! We have our own (most of ours were pets), plus bio security! I don't know what her birds may have had but there was no way I was going to take her birds! I am NOT that kind of person! We had expensive show birds as far as I know hers were production birds from what I had seen of them in her yard as we would drive by on our way out to town (so we had no need for them), she needs to realize that living in the woods brings wild critters that enjoy a nice fresh meal of chicken. That is not to blatenly point out to her that her dog could be the problem (we called the police one of the times to have her remove or tie up her dog which somehow she convinced the officer that was not her dog, which it was, and the officer never came to us for our point of view just hers so she came over and yelled at us saying she has never seen her dog offer to bite or do any harm to us before which that was the biggest lie EVER, my sister has a scar.. from her dog that bit my sister and it wasn't like we were bothering her dog we were on our property not hers, but long story short she thinks her dog is this angel that never would nip at anything.. well think again lady, please explain the bloody wound my little sister received while she was riding her bike from Josie).
I don't think we have ever had a problem with cats catching our birds but that could be because our neighbors had dogs not cats, well and our cats were indoor cats for the most part (so they were typical city girls when it came to seeing our chickens on the occasion that they actually wanted to visit the great outdoors)! Now that we have moved to the city we still have raccoon problems and maybe cat problems but I only have one chance this time (since I only have a rabbit, we still have our Rottweiler but he is about 12 years old so he isn't getting around as well as he use to and our cats that really are city kitties now but no birds unfortunately I would love to have some but I don't know that the city laws would allow that). I really am curious about getting something small like quail or bantams but we will have to see what the city rules are for our area!