Do any of you hold back?

[oliviad51]

I never said a chicken is like a person. I don't think that at all. I said a chicken is a living thing that deserves to be treated like one sometimes.
I think people jump to conclusions sometimes and kill their chicken as soon as they see something wrong.
My opinion is its okay to put a chicken down just try to help it first.

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
Yes.

Agreed.

It will become one, guaranteed.

I see it the way you do. Each situation calls for individual assessment, followed by action one way or another.

 

[CityChicker]

Quote:
LOL, I am not trying to pick on you, but is that not comparing chickens to humans? How else could that statement be taken? Did you not compare how a dying human would want to be treated to a dying chicken? LOL. I don't mean to pick on you. Really, I don't. I agree with a lot of what you said. As I said though, when I cull a bird that is obviously suffering, I am doing so precisely because I am showing it that it is loved and cared for. Animals deserve to be treated humanely and compassionately. Sometimes that is not easy for the human caretaker. I have raised poultry now for a couple decades and culling is still sometimes hard. I do it in the case of sick or injured birds because I think it is the right thing to do. It is, in fact, how I would want someone to treat me if I were terminally ill and suffering. Anyway, interesting discussion but I am headed off now to take care of the birds. I do agree with a lot of what you said, chickenlvr.

 

[oliviad51]

Yes, I guess it does sound like I'm comparing chickens to humans. I halfway am. I don't mean that chickens need to live like humans, and I didn't mean for one little remark to make everyone "mad" at me.

I just think chickens shouldn't be killed as soon as someone sees that something isn't right. I do have some common sense, and I wouldn't pay a lot of money for one chicken, but I'm not going to kill it unless I have tried a few things to help it.

I don't want this to turn into an argument and I think everyones opinion should be respected.

 

[CMV]

I like my birds a great deal. I work hard to keep them healthy and happy. I got involved on BYC because I had a hawk attack that shredded one of my hens. I wanted to save her because my 4 y.o. was with me when I found her, so I couldn't just cull her on the spot (which is what I thought would be best). I posted and bluntly asked if she could be saved from the pretty horrific injuries she had. I was assured she could be saved, and indeed I managed to save that hen. I have always wondered if I did her a disservice by saving her. She's still around, but it was months of isolation to get her well. Isolation, for a flock animal, is the cruelest sort of punishment. These days, if I was faced with the same situation, I would not have saved a bird with injuries of that magnitude.

I can't hold back when someone asks if they should euthanize. If the question even comes up then chances are good that the situation warrants it. I wish someone had been a little more honest about my hen when she was injured. My views on culling/euthanization have undoubtedly made me unpopular at times, but I must be honest with people. If a bird is horribly injured or chronically ill I frequently advocate culling. I say it nicely, but I still say it. Just because you can save something doesn't necessarily mean you should.

 

[GAchick]

CMV, that's the smartest thing I've heard in a long time on here. Especially the last line... Just because you CAN save it, doesn't mean you SHOULD.

 

[SallyF]

Yep. My tongue has teeth marks in it constantly. I grew up in the country and that's just the way it was done; most farmers didn't have time to spend on injured animals, so that's just what I was raised with. Although I have to admit, when I was a kid, we had a crippled rooster, who became my pet. He couldn't stand up and walked on his hocks; I named him Flower and he lived for about three years.

 

[cat1994]

Hi, I loved my frist chicken like she was my baby, like she was a human. I was 10 yrs old !! My dad would tell me to remember that she is just a chicken not a human. Of coruse i didnt listen to him i loved her so much, and i truly think she loved me to in some way. i had her for 2 yrs and than one night my dad woke me and told me that a coon had gotten in the coop and bit her, he had hread it and ran out there, (i think in some way he loved her to) grabed her away from the coon and shot the coon in the head. He said she was alive but the coon had riped her up pretty bad. I ran down the stairs to her, to shocked to cry. I came in the room were she was being keeped and the frist thing she did was strat singing to me. I grabed her up and held her so softly, and i criad myself to sleep laying there on the floor whith her in my arms, with her singing and talking to me. I stayed home from school and we toke her to the vets but they didnt really know what to do about it. she had some skin pulled away and one deep puncture womb under her wing. thay gave use some powder to put on the womb. the womb looked better but the deep puncture womb was strating to smell bad and dad said it was infected. i stayed with her evry day all day, i loved up on her as much as i could, i guess i did this because deep down i knew she wasnt going to live long. we toke her to vet and she was getting better but the puncture womb was not any better. so my dad gave me to choices, put her down or try and save her (keep her suffering) so i made the choice to end her suffering. i held her why the vet stock a needle into her haert and ended her life (she was singing to me tell she toke her last breath). i was 12 yrs old and i had just held my best friend as she died. i was hreat broken, i was shocked, i didnt go to schoole, i didnt do anything. i justed stayed home and cried. we buried her and gave her a cross over her grave. Its been 5 yrs since that night when i helded her and said my last good bye, i even strated to cry as i typed this, I have chickens now and none of them are like she was, and to tell you the truth im glad they arent like her. chickens are chickens they are not humans they are not meent to be treated like humans they are animals and they always will be. I belive in putting them down if they are suffering. i was so hreat broken by her death i dont ever want to get another chicken and treat it like i did her (like a human).

 

[oliviad51]

Well said CMV. Good point.

 

[CMV]

Quote:
Thank you. I've thought a lot about that situation in the intervening time. I genuinely feel bad that I saved that hen. I was selfish. I should have given her a quick end. She deserved that much consideration.