Deformed chicks I need to cull.

[Cynthia12]

I agree..time to move on. It's a choice the op made that is right for them.

 

[ChookieG]

Out of curiousity (morbid?) how is it that a chick can be described as "alive" when I have its head in one hand and its body in the other, with two feet of empty space between them, but somehow "not alive" when the two remain attached, but the neck lengthed by a cm or two?

It's a good point @U_Stormcrow, I guess if you wanna be really technical then I'll say that "alive" is perhaps not the best word to describe. What I particularly mean is brain activity is still detectable from seconds up to minutes after decapitation. The measure of brain activity is via an electroencephalogram (EEG) where brain waves, particularly electroencephalographic (EEG) power spectrum is measured. This a common technique used to assess the "viability" of the subject tested. See a link for an example: https://www.researchgate.net/public..._of_decapitation_of_the_anesthetized_rat#read

Apart from monitoring EEG activity, there really isn't any other method to date to substantiate viability. It's not as if somebody who has been decapitated has come back in a physical form to tell their tale!

Perhaps the body stops moving more quickly via the second method? I don't know, I've not tried it. But I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of "alive" when there's no head on the beast. It seems to me to be "alive" in the way a lizard's tail is "alive" after its dropped it in an effort to excape a predator...

Do you have a good reference material on the subject I might read???

 

[ChookieG]

The OP has culled the chicks. Time to close up the opinions and move on to a different thread.

Agree.. we make choices based on the available information we have at that time. I'm pretty sure OP thought that it's the most ethical and practical choice to cull the chicks. If OP meant to be cruel or ignorant, he/she wouldn't have decided to post a thread on BYC in the first place.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

It's a good point @U_Stormcrow, I guess if you wanna be really technical then I'll say that "alive" is perhaps not the best word to describe. What I particularly mean is brain activity is still detectable from seconds up to minutes after decapitation. The measure of brain activity is via an electroencephalogram (EEG) where brain waves, particularly electroencephalographic (EEG) power spectrum is measured. This a common technique used to assess the "viability" of the subject tested. See a link for an example: https://www.researchgate.net/public..._of_decapitation_of_the_anesthetized_rat#read

Apart from monitoring EEG activity, there really isn't any other method to date to substantiate viability. It's not as if somebody who has been decapitated has come back in a physical form to tell their tale!

Thank you for the read, doesn't tell me anything relative to cervical dislocation however.

 

[ChookieG]

Thank you for the read, doesn't tell me anything relative to cervical dislocation however.

No it's just a reference to EEG that you requested.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I'm trying to differentiate cervical dislocation from decapitation - the read was interesting, but ultimately unhelpful in that. The read provided details, yes, but the fact that brain activity continues after the spine is severed was not a new fact, just as it continues after dislocation...

Such as

And this

 

[bill3607]

This conversation reminds of when I was a child at my Grandmothers house she asked my Dad to go wring a chickens neck for her. So, I go outside with my Dad and he grabs up a hen by the head and whips it around in an arch real fast and hard and the body falls to the ground, runs around in a couple of circles before falling over for good, and the head was still doing a good chicken panic scream for a few seconds.
Now, I do not know if that was the proper way to do it, but I seen him do it that time and a couple more times with the same result. It was something that a kid sees and will never, ever forget. I am not squeamish, but I have never wanted to do that

 

[TheOddOneOut]

This conversation reminds of when I was a child at my Grandmothers house she asked my Dad to go wring a chickens neck for her. So, I go outside with my Dad and he grabs up a hen by the head and whips it around in an arch real fast and hard and the body falls to the ground, runs around in a couple of circles before falling over for good, and the head was still doing a good chicken panic scream for a few seconds.
Now, I do not know if that was the proper way to do it, but I seen him do it that time and a couple more times with the same result. It was something that a kid sees and will never, ever forget. I am not squeamish, but I have never wanted to do that

 

[JacinLarkwell]

This conversation reminds of when I was a child at my Grandmothers house she asked my Dad to go wring a chickens neck for her. So, I go outside with my Dad and he grabs up a hen by the head and whips it around in an arch real fast and hard and the body falls to the ground, runs around in a couple of circles before falling over for good, and the head was still doing a good chicken panic scream for a few seconds.
Now, I do not know if that was the proper way to do it, but I seen him do it that time and a couple more times with the same result. It was something that a kid sees and will never, ever forget. I am not squeamish, but I have never wanted to do that

My mom's school farm taught them this way. Mom refuses to ever do it because she couldn't get the right acceleration or snap or something and couldn't kill hers and the teacher had to come and finish the job for her.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Cervical dislocation has, seemingly, a high incidence of being performed incompletely.