Are chickens pets or livestock??? The Great Debate!

[3chimama]

I think both. I like getting eggs each day...but I consider all my girls pets. I will never butcher them. They will live out the rest of their lives on my farm.

 

[Rozzie]

All of my poultry has always been pets, whether duck, goose, chicken, guinea, or quail.

If they were livestock, I'd be concerned about profit margins. I'm not. I have my pets for my enjoyment of them. The eggs I get are a side benefit. None of my birds have ever been killed or slowed because they were bad producers, or because it cost more to feed them than their eggs are worth. If they were livestock, I'd be worried about these things.

Nope. My birds are babied. I sit on the floor beside their cages just to watch them. I talk to them. I sometimes answer them when they make noise. I feed them tasty treats just to watch their reaction. Heck, I've been known to go dig grubs out of the compost pile for them. I wouldn't do that for livestock...

 

[ivan3]

I'd have to describe the relationship as `symbiotic'. They are not our `pets'. They have their own schedules, hierarchies, `language' and haunts. They imprinted on us so they'll show up in the evenings to preen and gossip while grouped around us on the steps of the back deck before going to roost (we are the `challenged' members of the flock but they don't seem to hold it against us). When they arrived in 2005 I was drifting into early physical senescence (sitting in planes/sitting in front of computers/sitting). My Rheumatologist told me that I wouldn't need the Indomethacin and Aspirin to get me to where I was going. There was also a conversation I had with my MGM not long before she died (one month short of a century). I'd asked her what, if anything, she missed about farming (spent ninety years on the farm and was still living on her own and gardening before she passed). She answered, in her slow TN drawl, "Well, johnny, I guess I just miss some chickens in the yard. It would be nice to have some chickens again."

So, the chooks not only provide eggs, they are evocative of and serve as something of a homage to my mother's parents (MGF also kept roosters, nuff said) who I appreciate more as I get older. Back to getting older and symbiosis: the increased physical activity making sure the flocks stay healthy and safe (on a daily basis when I'm `on station') has resulted in the loss of 20lb. Mutual benefit seems to flirt with necessity so `symbiotes' it is.

Cass also grew up on a farm. She was charged with care of the `spring chickens' up to and including slaughter (mother processed from that point) from the age of 10 until she left for college. We split an order of Cornish with one of her nephews every year (split the cost of birds/we pay for feed/he raises them) and participate in the processing at his place. However, our turkeys are her `pets' (go figure).

We collect silicified Lepidodendron (fossilized fern trees ~300mil. yrs. old) fragments from the stream drainages in this region. Some mornings, sitting on the front steps with a cup of coffee in hand, I'll see the roo come around the corner of the house and stand tall, eyeballing me from between these crystallized chunks of roots and trunks. As we size one another up I imagine, on some some long ago morning, some lowly tetrapod shading itself from the sun under the fronds of those `trees' the remains of which glow in the light of the current sun and, somehow, the concepts of `common ancestor' and of time itself gather a heft and shape that transcends mere abstraction. Then the roo escorts his hens on their forage and I finish my coffee, pick up a paint scraper, and go out to clean the roosts.

Livestock or pets? Like most dichotomies of this sort it is convenient, but not comprehensive.

 

[Kasia]

Mine are definitely pets. Almost all my chickens are rescues. Some of them sleep on the bed with us. They are the best pets ever!

 

[@~rosecityfarmgirl~@]

I'm fighting my city's bylaw about this right now! Apparently, all domestic fowl are forbidden (BUT my cat is a 'domestic' feline, not a feral feline. Does that mean my PET chickens are legal? That's what I have to convince city council of...) but I have 3 little hens anyways: 1 bearded buff laced Polish who loves me, 1 white leghorn who tolerates me, and another that despises humanity. Not the cuddliest of pets, but some people have pet tarantulas. So come on

I'm an animal person - I could find a praying mantis and call it my pet lol!

 

[Baralak]

I would ask them if a Parrot, Parakeet, or a Macow would be considered domesticated aves?

 

[PunkinPeep]

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And if you name them and eat them, they're pets with potential?

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I agree.

 

[kla37]

I think if you love them, name them, and plan on keeping them beyond their egg laying years, then they are pets. If you want to eat them, or only use them for egg production and aren't really interested in making them pet-like, they are livestock. Don't see anything wrong with either approach! I also think that it's possible to have both at the same time, your "pet" chickens and your meaties. I know a family that keeps standard size chickens for eggs and meat, but they have a separate coop and run for their "babies" that are silkies and strictly pets. Lots of different things work for different people!