If all chickens had to be cageless

[AngieChick]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

Quote:
And there is the crux of the arguement: are battery cage inhumane?

Jim

Wow, I don't even know how to answer this. Just, wow. Do you believe that an animal with a brain is equivalent in thoughts and feelings to a cabbage? No, my chickens aren't human, or my "babies", but they aren't a head of broccoli either. That battery cages could be considered anything but inhumane goes against basic biology.​

 

[UncleHoot]

"Inhumane" is a subjective term, and cannot be proven or disproven in any scientific study. We, as a society, determine what is humane or inhumane. I dare say that if you showed a photograph of any battery cage chicken operation, voters would overwhelmingly consider it inhumane. On the flipside, if you showed voters photos of chickens being slaughtered, perhaps most would also find that to be inhumane.

The big problem here is that we are so far removed from our food. Until I started raising chickens, my daughter had probably never been within sight of a chicken, short of driving past them in the car. And yet, she's been eating them since she was a baby.

In general, people need to be more in touch with farmers, and farming practices. At that point, they can be trusted to make reasonable decisions. As things stand, I'm not so certain.

Do I think battery cages should be illegal? Personally, I don't care. I refuse to buy eggs from them, and I would hope that others would follow suit. Legally, you may be allowed to have 10 rat hairs per ounce of peanut butter, but exactly how many rat hairs would you put up with?

 

[onthespot]

I have the solution. If the hens stood in line, beak to back, like in a line for the movies that people stand in, they could stretch their wings and the cage would only have to be four feet long instead of twelve.

 

[seedcorn]

The big problem here is that we are so far removed from our food.

In general, people need to be more in touch with farmers, and farming practices. At that point, they can be trusted to make reasonable decisions. As things stand, I'm not so certain.

Agree to this.​

 

[HorseFeathers]

Quote:
Agree to this.

I agree as well. I am also appalled at current factory farming conditions. The poor egg hens just pumping out egg after egg without being able to turn around- it just make me sick.

Having your own chickens gets you closer to "where your food comes from". So does having a garden. So does ordering beef from a local farmer and seeing the cow beforehand out in pasture.

 

[HorseFeathers]

Quote:
And there is the crux of the arguement: are battery cage inhumane?

Jim

Wow, I don't even know how to answer this. Just, wow. Do you believe that an animal with a brain is equivalent in thoughts and feelings to a cabbage? No, my chickens aren't human, or my "babies", but they aren't a head of broccoli either. That battery cages could be considered anything but inhumane goes against basic biology.

Agreed.


That being said, now let's play the "How Long Until This Thread Gets Locked" game. I'm thinking 5 minutes.

 

[seedcorn]

That being said, now let's play the "How Long Until This Thread Gets Locked" game

Why should this or any thread get locked as long as people stay civil, stay away from name calling? Can we not disagree and comunicate our differences?

Having your own chickens gets you closer to "where your food comes from". So does having a garden. So does ordering beef from a local farmer and seeing the cow beforehand out in pasture.

Understand the sentiment except a large part of our population lives in cities, going to college, military who do not have the ability to do this and therefore buy from stores or eat what is front of them.​

 

[Renee]

Hmm.
The forward-thinking egg farmer might be wise, I think, to begin marketing his/her eggs as cruelty-free, raised in California and therefore fresh. People DO pay much much more money for eggs they think are fresh and from chickens that are 'cage-free'. I was paying over five bucks a dozen for eggs before I got chickens, because they were fed organically, free ranged, and the eggs were dated.

In other words, it might be possible to make lemonade out of lemons with this bill if you are an innovative sort.

Another solution would be to expand the backyard chicken hobby to the point that all of the inhumane egg farmers had no market at all in California.

 

[panner123]

I am not worried about what they do with the large egg mills or beef ranches. And that is not what this prop is really all about. What it comes down to is this, if any animal rights group wants to come onto YOUR property and look at YOUR animals they can do so with NO search warrant. If they feel YOUR animals are to confined, they can remove them and have you fined. They measure the room it takes for a chicken like this, they put it in the nest box, spread it's wings and rotate the chicken. If the wings touch any part of the nest box, there is not enough room for the chicken. How many of us have a nest box that big? I know I don't.

 

[seedcorn]

cruelty-free

So what would this be? cage free do it for most on here? If so, define a "cage".​