Our chickens are pets and that's it. Most of my family is Vegetarian (except my dad, but he still won't eat the chickens). We love getting eggs from them because the last thing I want to do is buy those nasty store-bought eggs that come from those poor battery hens. I don't support the cruel battery hen egg factories and I feel good about going out to collect the eggs almost everyday from our chickens and knowing that they came from happy, healthy hens.
I understand that many chickens are used as a source of food-both eggs and meat. That's fine, it's the cruelty that they go through at the factories and slaughterhouses that makes me sooo mad and irritated because I have absolutely no idea how someone can do something like that. But understand that many people raise their own chickens and give them a great life and kill them only when needed to feed themselves or their families. And when it comes time to kill one, they do it as humanely as possible and they respect and thank the chicken for producing for them and being of such good service to them. That's fine. But our chickens are pets and when you bond with them as much as I have, there's no way you can kill them to eat or even send them off to be processed by someone else so you don't feel as bad about it. Killing one of our chickens would be like killing one of our dogs. It would be wrong and horrible and unbearable. So, they are our "pets", but I sometimes like to call them companions or friends. Because that's what they are to us. They aren't machines that just lay eggs and have no feelings. They do have feelings, obviously, and they can be wonderful friends. I know because right now I have a 26 day old baby chick that lives in my bedroom in a brooder box. I feel as if she's my baby and I care for her and feed her and protect her and she thinks I'm her mother.
A year or so for now, I know that she will remember me. And there's no way I would be able to kill her just for me to eat. If I had the choice to go hungry or eat her, I would choose to go hungry. It's like if you would rather eat your own child or go hungry, and you would obviously go hungry instead. lol I care about all of our chickens too much to hurt them, and that includes eating them for a reason such as if they stop laying, if they become aggressive, if they get too old to produce anything, etc...any reason at all. The only reason we would kill one of them is if they were suffering and had to be culled. And even then we would bury them in our "animal graveyard" to rest in peace, rather than eat them.
So, all of the chickens that we currently own (and any others we have in the future) are destined to live a life and never EVER have to worry about being eaten. Our chickens are pets who provide my family with companionship, a great experience, and eggs until the day they die of some natural cause (such as disease (unless we can cure them), predators, or old age). Even in their old age, they can rest assured that we don't care if they can't give us anymore eggs. Sure, eggs are helpful and we love getting them, but we love our chickens more than the eggs they give us. And I'm sure that someday they will thank us for that love and caring we gave to them.
So, all of the chickens that we currently own (and any others we have in the future) are destined to live a life and never EVER have to worry about being eaten. Our chickens are pets who provide my family with companionship, a great experience, and eggs until the day they die of some natural cause (such as disease (unless we can cure them), predators, or old age). Even in their old age, they can rest assured that we don't care if they can't give us anymore eggs. Sure, eggs are helpful and we love getting them, but we love our chickens more than the eggs they give us. And I'm sure that someday they will thank us for that love and caring we gave to them.
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