Everyone tries to press that chickens are pets, but

[Imp]

Quote:
I'm with patandchickens. people are very complex with many emotions around animals and their care. My chickens are neither pets or livestock. I tell people that they are living garden art, not likely to see a vet, but my vets will help me with them if I ask. But the cats- some are pets and live inside, some are pets and live inside/outside, some are neighbors pets that just like me better(we split the bills for those) The feral/stray cats will get a trip to the vets for neutering and maybe a round of vaccines, but not much more. The pet cats OMG I've spent thousands. Last spring my bottle raised feral got horribly obstipated. Several months and nothing was helping. Vet had no idea what was causing the problem. dozens of trips to the vet. Finally it came down to removal of the large intestine. I bit the bullet and paid the $2000, and now my cat is fine and happy again. He's in my lap right now reading BYC. At the same time I had a nice but less than friendly stray in the hospital with a broken leg. Vet wanted $1000 to pin the bones. Couldn't do it for a stray even if I had been feeding it for a couple years. Can't really point fingers at anyone for their decisions. Funny I can hunt and fish but can't kill the raccoons in my backyard. Complicated Huh!

 

[silkiechicken]

Actually, plants use oxygen just like us all the time. However, when they get light, like sun, they can use their choloroplasts and product oxygen from carbon dioxide.

Animals and plants both have mitochondria to produce ATP to sustain life. Just plants are lucky enough to have chloroplasts to make their own sugar.

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

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CO2 in your breathe...they love it!

Apparently not because if you yell and curse at a plant, blaming it for something with anger it will wilt. That would have the same CO2 supply, but the response is very negative and that to me was the real eye opener in all the research done on emotions in plants.

 

[dacjohns]

What about all the insects and other critters that are killed because of pesticide use on plants and harvesting plants.

 

[Chicabee19]

I was randomly thinking about this thread last night.

If you have a pet chicken, and you cull and eat it, it becomes part of you forever.

 

[Bex]

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And what about when those tractors/machines go through the fields getting the veggies/wheat/etc? Imagine all the animals in those fields that get squashed...

I was a vegetarian for a long time.. and then someone told me that.. and I felt awful again.

 

[silkiechicken]

And all those veggies. Even organic ones... if you don't use artificial man made fertilizers, you often use animal wastes as a fertilizer. What stops animal waste from those raised in industry from being used to make the lush green veggies and yummy fruit you eat from the store? What would you fertilize with if there wasn't those animal wastes? Man made fertilizers? I don't actually know the process of how it all works in that respect.

 

[patandchickens]

Can I suggest that this is going somewhere a bit pointless? I mean, EVERYBODY has to eat, and virtually anything you can eat involves either taking a life (or lives), or seriously and unhappily messin' with various organisms' lives. Usually both.

It just comes down to where each person draws the line between what they feel is ok (as being a better choice than suicide by self-starvation) versus not ok (as being harder on other organisms than the person feels is justified).

Returning to the original question, can I point out that by no means does "everyone" say their chickens are pets -- in fact I'd guess that a majority of people on the list keep them as much or more for food reasons as they do as 'companion animals'. And of course those people are the ones less likely to spend money on extensive vet care (when it's even available, which is relatively seldom). BIG diversity among chicken owners, here

Pat (NOT a vegan or vegetarian, btw)

 

[kstaven]

Many of us sit some where in between when it comes to animals. We give them the best of feed and care, note their personal characteristics, spend hours everyday around them and then say thank you when we process them.

Does this make them a pet or not? That is a hard question to answer.

If you look back on history you will find food animals where treated very well because our ancestors knew if you took good care of your animals you would be rewarded with milk, eggs,meat and your family would survive.

 

[Anny]

I don't cull my chickens. Mine are pets not food. I don't even eat their eggs I do sell them and give them away though. I don't eat eggs (I'm vegan)

My hens are here for life (their natural lifes) no matter what.