BYC Café

[aart]

But the more I work with a bird trying to save it, the more attached I get. And they become more attached to you and start to show more of their personality. That's what makes it hard.

Yeppers.
Tho they are not pets I handle mine often enough that they are pretty calm around me.
ETA...and the longer they are around the more attached one becomes.
I slaughtered all older hens in the first 4-5 years, to make room for new layers.
The first one of those was really hard too.

 

[DobieLover]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...kens-crushed-egg-shells.1443552/post-23962518
Huh?

 

[sourland]

I'm so sorry. But thinking along these lines is the best option when making a hard decision. Neither of us want our birds to suffer any longer.

The hardest decision we as caretakers have to make. I generally agonize for a period of time, do what needs to be done, feel sad, and eventually a sense of relief because I know that I have done the right thing and that the animal is no longer suffering. It's all about the animal and their quality of life.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...kens-crushed-egg-shells.1443552/post-23962518
Huh?

Beware the Vladimir.

 

[Sally PB]

So sorry for those of you who have to let your ailing girls go. Hugs for you and your hearts and your birds.

 

[LaFleche]

But the more I work with a bird trying to save it, the more attached I get. And they become more attached to you and start to show more of their personality. That's what makes it hard.

This is exactly where the problem lies: They recognize our best intentions to help them and they appreciate and even come to expect it!

 

[LaFleche]

...and the longer they are around the more attached one becomes.

So true!

 

[LaFleche]

The hardest decision we as caretakers have to make. I generally agonize for a period of time, do what needs to be done, feel sad, and eventually a sense of relief because I know that I have done the right thing and that the animal is no longer suffering. It's all about the animal and their quality of life.

Yes, I am eager to get to the stage where relief will overtake.

 

[aart]

They recognize our best intentions to help them and they appreciate and even come to expect it!

Or they just get more used to being handled and fed special stuff.
But I'm just hard-hearted and anti-anthropomorphic.

 

[LaFleche]

Or they just get more used to being handled and fed special stuff.
But I'm just hard-hearted and anti-anthropomorphic.

Well, anti-anthropomorphic or not, she even came to me every time something got stuck in the sole of her foot to have me pluck it out, or when something else was bothering her.

Like I said earlier, she never liked chickens and would always seek human company, not for treats but just to be around and talk to. She has been raised by a broody (Wyandotte) with lots of hatchmates, but never even liked her siblings, always running off, trying to escape from the enclosure and join the humans.
She would be 6 years in March.

I guess that every once in a while there comes along a very special personality.

 

[sourland]

I guess that every once in a while there comes along a very special personality.

This even happens with the human animal.