eating your pet open discussion

[pingu1]

I am attqached to all of my hens

 

[JJSS89]

I am attached to people. Not livestock. There is the biggest difference in opinion on this topic.

 

[perchead]

I am attached to people.  Not livestock.  There is the biggest difference in opinion on this topic.

I think the difference for me is the kids if I have a hen that I don't like for breeding or isn't producing eggs it becomes supper if it's the kids bird it goes in with the layers

 

[pingu1]

not really attached can mean different things for different animals or humans etc. I could say i'm not physically attached to my hens by a piece of rope that's just an example of a different meaning of the word attached.

I am attached to people. Not livestock. There is the biggest difference in opinion on this topic.

 

[ccarver80]

Im going to end up after eveeyone is grown up I'm figuring 20-23 hens and 1 rooster (2 differnt lots of TSC chicks and 1 big batch from McMurray)

They will be considered pets....

But a hen goes broody and happens to have 8 or so chicks following it around one day they will get "tagged and bagged" at butcher age

 

[JaceAgain]

What is the point of this thread? What do you hope to gain?

I like my chickens. I really do. They entertain me, they feed me, they are low maintenance, I'd cry if one died. But they aren't a pet in the same sense that a dog or cat is a pet. My attachment to them is 100% from me anthropomorphizing them, not from any particular special trait of the chicken. They don't care. They don't emote, they flock to me because I feed them snacks, not because they like me. Were I to give them away, they'd like the next person who fed them just as much. Thats the difference. A dog emotes. A dog is a pet because of what it can give back to his owner, actively. A chicken running to you or sitting in your lap makes you happy, but its passive. Its not sitting in your lap because it loves you, its sitting there because it is receiving grooming or it knows it will receive food after the fact. Were you to stop doing those things, it wouldn't care.

Someone eating their "pet" chicken is just better at not applying human traits and emotions to livestock than others. And those that are bad at it (like myself), its recommended to freeze the chicken for a few months so you basically forget that that was "Magical Unicorn Kitten the Chicken" and now its just "Chicken the Dinner".

 

[iawoodchip]

What is the point of this thread? What do you hope to gain?

I like my chickens. I really do. They entertain me, they feed me, they are low maintenance, I'd cry if one died. But they aren't a pet in the same sense that a dog or cat is a pet. My attachment to them is 100% from me anthropomorphizing them, not from any particular special trait of the chicken. They don't care. They don't emote, they flock to me because I feed them snacks, not because they like me. Were I to give them away, they'd like the next person who fed them just as much. Thats the difference. A dog emotes. A dog is a pet because of what it can give back to his owner, actively. A chicken running to you or sitting in your lap makes you happy, but its passive. Its not sitting in your lap because it loves you, its sitting there because it is receiving grooming or it knows it will receive food after the fact. Were you to stop doing those things, it wouldn't care.

Someone eating their "pet" chicken is just better at not applying human traits and emotions to livestock than others. And those that are bad at it (like myself), its recommended to freeze the chicken for a few months so you basically forget that that was "Magical Unicorn Kitten the Chicken" and now its just "Chicken the Dinner".

Ha Ha... keeping a bird in the freezer a couple months just don't work. She still won't eat it. And it wasn't even her chicken.

 

[JaceAgain]

Its just something I've read works for most people We eat chicken in this house, so no one is really going to know if its the grocery store chicken we're eating or Chicken Peep the Chicken, you know?

 

[liverwart]

I agree with what you guys are all saying, but the phrase "humanely slaughtered'', really doesn't make sense. I don't think you can kill anything humanely. Yeah, you can euthanize it, but taking away any being's life will never be considered humane by me. Just my opinion.

 

[saltandpepper2]

I agree with what you guys are all saying, but the phrase "humanely slaughtered'', really doesn't make sense. I don't think you can kill anything humanely. Yeah, you can euthanize it, but taking away any being's life will never be considered humane by me. Just my opinion.

Humane the word''s definition is to show sympathy, and to inflict the least amount of pain as possible. So that being said, I think humane slaughtering is possible. When I slaughter a bird, I care for its well being, and I want it to die peacefully and painlessly. That's humane in my definition of the word.