Right??? I don't understand most people.
"Backyard chickens dumped at shelters when hipsters can't cope, critics say"
- Thread starter jjthink
- Start date
- Apr 15, 2011
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Spending a lot of money on a sick chicken as an only option falsely limits actual options. Rehoming to an owner who can/wants to spend that much or culling/killing/putting down the animal in question are other options. This is just one of the AR tactics and slants that are very noticeable in this article.
instead of wasting peoples time adopting farm animals(livestock) how about processing all unwanted chickens for the people on food stamps to eat? i'm sure this lady is getting tax exempt status to push her silly agenda.EAT MORE CHICKEN!
Wow really?! I have never heard of chickens being difficult to take care of. Sure the odd health problem occurs and can be a little pricey but compared to a dog or cat?! If they can't take care of chickens they don't really need any other animal...
I agree it is heavily skewed. The word hipster is a loaded word anyhow. Every article that talkes about hipsters talks about them in the light of rich spoiled young people who have no sense and no talent but try to anyhow. I personally have never met a hipster. I keep seeing references to them and i don't even know what a hipster is suppose to be. It is so broadly generalized.
And I agree with the fact that people are trying to treat them like pets not farm animals. Chickens can be pets, but they rank around goldfish an hamsters in the pet department in my eyes, as minor pets that are cute and sociable but not true companion animals on the level of a dog and a cat. It is best to cull or find someone who wants them otherwise there will be a flood of roosters sitting in these no kill sanctuaries while hungry people struggle to eat.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/20...npr&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130711
Hipsters Off The Hook: The Truth Behind Abandoned Backyard Chickens
by MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF
July 11, 201310:14 AM
Don't leave me: Many cities allow hens but not roosters.
iStockphoto.com
From the headlines this week, I almost expected to see a hen clucking outside NPR's headquarters this morning.
"Chickens Flood Shelters As Backyard Farmers Call It Quits," Time exclaimed. "Hipster farmers abandoning urban chickens because they're too much work," Canada's National Postwrote. As the headlines would have it, hens are getting dumped once their egg-laying years are over.
But are hipsters really the fair-weather farmers they're being portrayed as? Not necessarily.
A closer look at at the backyard farming industry reveals another underlying cause for the spike in unwanted chickens. And it's not the hens that are the major problem but the roosters, says Susie Coston of Farm Sanctuary in New York.
Urban chicken farming has exploded in popularity over the past few years. (Who doesn't want a pet that makes your breakfast?) In response, many cities have made it legal for residents to keep egg-laying hens, but they still prohibit roosters. The gentlemen are just too loud for urban living, Coston says.
Here's where the problem begins. When urban farmers order hens online, as is popular, suppliers can't tell 100 percent if they're sending a lady or a gentleman.
The Salt
Chicken Diapers? Urban Farming Spawns Accessory Lines
The Salt
Backyard Chickens: Cute, Trendy Spreaders Of SalmonellaAnd that means many city dwellers end up getting roosters, when they really wanted hens. Once the poor fellows start crowing, their fate is sealed: It's either the frying pan or the local humane society.
"Roosters are being treated very differently from hens," Coston says. "We probably get 400 or 500 roosters each year at just one of our sanctuaries."
But for urban dwellers who want to raise backyard chickens, there's a way around this mystery-chicken-sex problem: Adopt an adult chicken — or better yet, adopt a hen from a factory farm, says John Reese of the Marin Humane Society.
The animal adoption facility he runs in Novato, Calif., gets most of its chickens from factory farms. "They're called spent hens," he says. The little ladies still have some egg-laying left in them, but they're just not as productive as younger birds.
"The factories slaughter most of them for food," Reese says, "but we save some of them from the soup and [let them] enjoy the leisure life in Marin County."
Reese also says he hasn't seen an uptick in abandoned birds. "We literally have the extreme opposite situation here on the north side of San Francisco," he tells The Salt. "Over the past few years, we've just had a steady rise in chicken adoptions."
And I agree with the fact that people are trying to treat them like pets not farm animals. Chickens can be pets, but they rank around goldfish an hamsters in the pet department in my eyes, as minor pets that are cute and sociable but not true companion animals on the level of a dog and a cat. It is best to cull or find someone who wants them otherwise there will be a flood of roosters sitting in these no kill sanctuaries while hungry people struggle to eat.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/20...npr&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130711
Hipsters Off The Hook: The Truth Behind Abandoned Backyard Chickens
by MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF
July 11, 201310:14 AM
Don't leave me: Many cities allow hens but not roosters.
iStockphoto.com
From the headlines this week, I almost expected to see a hen clucking outside NPR's headquarters this morning.
"Chickens Flood Shelters As Backyard Farmers Call It Quits," Time exclaimed. "Hipster farmers abandoning urban chickens because they're too much work," Canada's National Postwrote. As the headlines would have it, hens are getting dumped once their egg-laying years are over.
But are hipsters really the fair-weather farmers they're being portrayed as? Not necessarily.
A closer look at at the backyard farming industry reveals another underlying cause for the spike in unwanted chickens. And it's not the hens that are the major problem but the roosters, says Susie Coston of Farm Sanctuary in New York.
Urban chicken farming has exploded in popularity over the past few years. (Who doesn't want a pet that makes your breakfast?) In response, many cities have made it legal for residents to keep egg-laying hens, but they still prohibit roosters. The gentlemen are just too loud for urban living, Coston says.
Here's where the problem begins. When urban farmers order hens online, as is popular, suppliers can't tell 100 percent if they're sending a lady or a gentleman.
The Salt
Chicken Diapers? Urban Farming Spawns Accessory Lines
The Salt
Backyard Chickens: Cute, Trendy Spreaders Of Salmonella
"Roosters are being treated very differently from hens," Coston says. "We probably get 400 or 500 roosters each year at just one of our sanctuaries."
But for urban dwellers who want to raise backyard chickens, there's a way around this mystery-chicken-sex problem: Adopt an adult chicken — or better yet, adopt a hen from a factory farm, says John Reese of the Marin Humane Society.
The animal adoption facility he runs in Novato, Calif., gets most of its chickens from factory farms. "They're called spent hens," he says. The little ladies still have some egg-laying left in them, but they're just not as productive as younger birds.
"The factories slaughter most of them for food," Reese says, "but we save some of them from the soup and [let them] enjoy the leisure life in Marin County."
Reese also says he hasn't seen an uptick in abandoned birds. "We literally have the extreme opposite situation here on the north side of San Francisco," he tells The Salt. "Over the past few years, we've just had a steady rise in chicken adoptions."
in some countries, chickens are food
I read this article before it was posted here, and I must admit as a chicken owner it annoyed me. First of I guess I agree that there are some people that get swept up in trends. But I can't imagine it is as prevalent as this article makes it sound! ALSO I live in the city, and have chickens. I take full responsibility for the animals, taking care of them, and their coop. Now, my comments for the shelters that "adopt" chickens. I am a HUGE animal lover. I fostered animals, I have pets (excluding the count of chickens) and I make sure my food is raised humanely. However since when did chickens become pets? now I am ok with a person keeping a chicken as a pet. However a shelter raving about hundreds of chickens being dumped on them and them having to adopt them out....that is just silly and money wasting process. how about instead of housing them, opening a chicken butcher shop and selling chickens AND THEIR EGGS at discounted rate to people who need food? it would be much better use of resources of farm animals that "hipsters" no longer want. My opinion I suppose, but if they post an article generalizing and putting me as city owner into a group they are attacking, what can you expect to get as comment back.
I love your "unwanted farm animals shelter/butcher" idea.
You should see the look on people's face when they learned that My pot belly big gilt will one day be a brood sow for me to raise tasty tasty babies from. Yes I bottle fed her. Yes she is a pet. Her babies won't be, and yes you can eat pot bellies. They ARE pigs. The shelters will not adopt to you if you intend on eating the pigs.
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