Coalition of Animal Sanctuaries Urges Ban on Backyard Chickens

[mistyfeather]

Quote:
Except for them, of course, because they have rescued them from the rest of us horrible people.

There was a story I heard on the radio recently; an activist wrote a piece saying that since humans have the smarts to get protein from non-animal sources, no human should eat meat or animal products. They just refuse to accept that humans and some other animals, chickens included, are physically adapted to be omnivores. They truly consider meat-eating to be murder. You really have to keep a close watch on these groups or else omnivorous diets will be banned by law someday. Frightening. Choose your own diet, but don't tell me what to eat/not eat, or worse, regulate me into it.

dont put it past them to start going around steeling chickens and "setting them free" in the nearest woods

my father -in-law is of one of those types, delutional ... he stole my 1 1/2 yr. old border collie from my yard last year because "its cruel to make a dog sleep outside" he was born and raised as an outside dog. i had to rinaly rehome him to a rancher to keep him safe from my father-in-law

should have kept my dog and had the father-in-law arested!

 

[PunkinPeep]

Quote:
I think this is smart of you.

And i think that for those people who live in cities where this is being brought up at your city council meetings, it would be very very wise to start writing letters to the editor in your local paper (well-worded ones, please) debunking the false points being made by these organizations. This way you can hopefully gather a little public support in your direction. If the public hears only what these organizations say, they'll believe them.

Incidentally, it's also a good idea to start encouraging your friends to have chickens. The more people who have chickens, the harder it is for the city to ban it.

 

[fancbrd4me02]

I read that anti-chicken keeping manifesto. It's interesting, because some of the things they cite as reasons not to allow chickens are the things caused by chicken discrimination. (like banning roosters)

For instance, they say that they want this stuff passed cause they have to take in too many (a) unwanted chickens, (b)not correct sex (c) not legally permissable

Well, as to the fact that they want it not to be legally permissable and are promoting discrimination against chickens in general, and roosters in particular. If roosters are abandond due to rooster bans, why not lobby to chage rooster bans by city gov't.? And those unwanted chickens - how many of those are ones people have to give up due to unfair city ordinances?

They are looking for the short sweet answer to preventing animal cruelty. There isn't one. I can't believe that they suggest that people slaughtering thier own animals lack the ability to slaughter them humanely - Are they promoting factory slaughterhouses? Because they are not exactly the model of humane treatment of animals. Gee whiz!!!!!

 

[fancbrd4me02]

Forgive me if you guys already answered this question. But how and when & where is this being distributed/promoted? Are they working on certain cities or what?

 

[Windy Ridge]

Wifezilla wrote:

Animal activism and logic have very little to do with each other.

Well, I see what you're saying, but honestly, I think a lot of us here consider ourselves to be "animal activists" because we treat our chickens humanely, as opposed to crowding them into notebook paper sized spaces. Those "backyarders" who raise and eat their own chickens tend to worry about how to humanely kill them rather than, say, boiling them alive, as happens in commercial slaughterhouses, since chickens are not protected by the Humane Slaughter Act. To me, this is also activism, but I suppose your milage may vary when it comes to applying labels. There are fringe people on all sides (of every issue). This past week, I've been attacked by two different people (NOT here) who jumped to some crazy conclusions based on nonpolitical comments: once for being a rightwing freak-o-zoid and once for being a leftwing madwoman. I guess that balances out.

So... all I'm saying is that JUST because is supportive of one thing (animals? guns? veganism?) doesn't necessarily mean that person is off his or her rocker. You MAY be meeting someone who loves animals and guns... or who is a conservative vegetarian. (I know someone who fits into that.)

That out of the way, Eastern Shore Sanctuary "friended" me on Facebook, and then proceeded to post some really nutty stuff about how backyard chicken keeping and said something to the effect that allowing hens to hatch their eggs was cruelty and should be against the law. Why in the world would you request someone to be your FB "friend" and then proceed to post some really sorts of crazy, uneducated things about their hobby? And how can you call yourself a sanctuary if you clearly don't know anything about the animals you purport to protect?

They've since deleted that nonsense, or I'd copy it here for you to see. (They seem to have deleted it when I asked them whether they consider the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy to be inhumane since they <gasp!> encourage people to try to preserve rare heritage breeds by hatching eggs from rare breeds.) Aaaaacccckkk!

Here's their facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?v=info&id=1111596025

My suggestion is just to friend them there and when they post silly things, be respectful and logical in a response. They will probably delete it, but I hope they may eventually see that we're not the enemy. Of all the fights to pick, this is kind of the craziest, since backyard chicken people are probably the ones most responsible for getting people to see that chickens are not just dirty, stupid birds, but they have their own dignity.

I ABSOLUTELY think that chickens should be treated humanely. And I've argued with many a person about the conditions chickens are kept in commercially. I've talked some not-very-smart people out of buying chicks as Easter gifts, too, when they evidently had no idea what they needed to do to care for the birds--ugh! And I do think that these sanctuaries often do some wonderful work. But like many fringe people and organizations, they don't have very nuanced positions on issues.

Believe me: if you can get attacked on the one hand for having the gall to eat vension hunted from your own property (and fed, alas, on your own peach trees), and if you can get ranted at on the other hand for mentioning that you buy your drinking water at the grocery store since your house doesn't get clean drinking water (BTW, I am reliably told that I am part of a dirty leftwing conspiracy for suggesting that our household doesn't have drinkable water in the tap, even though the water collected from our roof into a cistern is collected directly from our gutters)... well, then being a sort of thinking, middle of the road person when it comes to anything, including chickens, is liable to get you into trouble.

Most people are who keep backyard chickens are probably more in the middle (and in trouble). We think it's crazy to treat them like non-living egg or meat machines, and we also think it's crazy to act as if they're fluffy,vegetarian angels of light that don't eat mice, bugs and other creepy crawlies because they subsist on rainbows and starlight.​

 

[babymakes6]

It is just like all these cities that are banning train whistles "because they are too loud," and then they say the railroad needs to do a better job to keep people safe, because there are too many accidents at the crossings.

 

[PunkinPeep]

We think it's crazy to treat them like non-living egg or meat machines, and we also think it's crazy to act as if they're fluffy,vegetarian angels of light that don't eat mice, bugs and other creepy crawlies because they subsist on rainbows and starlight.

 

[WisconsinGardenChick]

Quote:
Excellent factual rebuttal, Amy!

 

[WisconsinGardenChick]

I have WHAT in my yard? :

I have a neighbor who refuses to kill her roosters, and she won't rehome them because she is afraid that others would. The result? Ten hens and 12 roosters. After pleading with her she finally separated the hens when some finally died from the attentions of that many roosters. So of course the roosters are now living an "alternative lifestyle" which shocked and dismayed her.

Those poor hens!!! But how hysterically funny that the roosters are living an "alternative lifestyle"! I hope your neighbor has learned something here.

I have WHAT in my yard? :

My chickens are incredibly spoiled, but they're chickens! I have no delusions that if I fell down dead in their run they would not hesitate to eat me.

Same here. I think they'd probably start with the eyeballs.

 

[WisconsinGardenChick]

Quote:
Wow, I wish I'd known that a few days ago. For a different discussion on a different board. Where in Florida do you live?