Im sick of people shoving this away it NEEDS to be noted!!!!

[Desert Rooster]

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[newfoundland]

Surely all animals have feelings. They can be distressed, frightened and certainly depressed if not kept in an appropriate way. The trouble is everyone wants cheap chicken and eggs. This is why factory farms exist. Over here, many farms are turning over to rearing perchery hens. They are not free range but kept loose in barns and have perches so they can at least have some semblance of natural behaviour. Having said that unscrupulous farmers overstock their barns and living conditions deteriorate rapidly. Several of our popular chefs such as Jamie Oliver have exposed what happens on these factory farms and there has been much publicity. The public has really got behind the idea of free range and they are now the best selling eggs. I think this all has to be underpinned by strict government legislation which cannot work if there are not regular inspections of these places.

 

[Boyd]

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I want to note.. Not all chickens are pets. Some are in fact food. Life on the farm and all. Battery hens are livestock not pets. Many many many people attribute human emotions and actions with all animals. I am guilty of doing this with intelligent pooch's .. But before we go bashing the folks who've been putting food on the table for folks for years, remember, they don't have 10,000 pets, they have livestock. They live a different life than pets.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Boyd, you get my "Kudos Award" of the day.

 

[Organics North]

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Boyd, I do not think this is a pets or livestock debate.. More or less is it "right" for us humans to raise animals in CAFO type situations instead of in more natural settings. I see this as more of a call to awareness of the practices modern industrial agriculture uses to provide cheap food, and a big yes vote to small scale local agriculture...

Maybe the OP can chime in here.. I did not read the OP was opposed to raising chickens for eggs, (or even meat?) just the practices used by industrial agriculture...


For me this has nothing to do about eating chicken, but everything to do about the excuses we come up with to make it "OK"..

Because I see finding excuses is a bad habit in my opinion... It is what slave keepers did to justify their practices. It is what people do to make Genocide OK.. It is the basis for all Jihad.


I will shut up know..

ON

 

[AHappychick]

no matter what the life form everything should be treated with respect. I love eating meat but I choose to only buy it from farms that raise them in a respectful humane way. I raise my own chicken for meat so I know they have had a good life. Even when I have meaties they get a big clean home, free range time and a safe place to be a chicken even if it is only a short 6 week life. I would not pull the legs off a spider but I will squish it if need be. I wont purposely forget to water my plants but will cut them down to harvest. There is a difference in my mind. Death and needing to eat are facts of life, it is how we choose to do these acts that counts. Needless death or inhumane (factory) farming because it is cheap and more productive is immoral any way you put it. It does not matter if you believe they have emotions or not (although I think they do to an extent) and fact of the mater is often they show more emotions and morals than many humans.

 

[EweSheep]

What I mean to "humanize" animals are these traits that we humans put upon our chickens, particuarly dogs and cats. It is more for US to feel good but not necessarily feels good to the chicken.

Yes they do have the responsive stimuli in how they were cared for, feeling pain, feeling protective of their flock and chicks, that is normal all across any species of animals.

However the line is this, not to bash anyone for this but to their own......you dress a chicken because they are "cute" in tutus and dresses, that is way over the top IMO. Treating like a spoiled baby that one would sideline their lifestyle that their world evolved with their pets, buying and thinking it is best for their pets to be that way. Some pets are beyond to the point of destruction that they know how to manuliplate us, to feed them more of "junk food" because they "cry". Because they "cry" is the normal response...remember the Pavlov treatments in dogs? Same thing. Are we doing them a favor, probably not, simply because we FEEL good in doing that kind of treatment. I am sure we have our favorite chickens and we would treat them a little more special than the others while the others dont give a hoot about it as long they get the treat in your hand or a fond petting that certainly makes them purr.

Some folks go way beyond that stage that it would make their chickens unhappy. It is our own selfish needs to "humanize" chickens so we can feel good about ourselves and for the chickens (bad or good).

Chickens have basic needs like we humans do too but we humans need a little more. I hope that clarify what I mean about humanize chickens.

I am against battery hens.......I certainly do not want to be like them, crammed in a small cage and only to produce eggs in my lifetime. You can bet the farmer had to block that mentality so he can support himself and his family along with the employees. He does not have the time or money to treat every sick chicken so what he do, eliminate them. "Cage free" birds are a little better but still problems does exist the same for battery hens as in space and confinement in a barn, not in a field.

 

[redhen]

Being a meat bird has NOTHING to do with being treated humanely..
Who cares if your going to eat your bird... just treat it RIGHT before you do the deed...
And living in a filthy 2 ft cage, 24/7 on a wire floor is NOT humane.
Its not rocket science.,.

 

[ninjascrub69]

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[Dunkopf]

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Yep