Like I said before, I can see how if you thought about it too hard you would feel uncomfortable with it, but honestly, it's just nature. Sometimes chickens will go after each other without any person involved at all. I had two gerbils that ate each other once. GROSS, but that's how animals roll sometimes. They aren't people. I can't say I'd feed meat to my birds, but not out of any ethical imperative really, my dog just seems to always be underfoot at the dinner table waiting for scraps. When I give him vegetables, he spits them out. If the chicken feels weird about it or it tastes bad to them, they wouldn't eat it. Cannibalism amongst animals, while kinda gruesome to think about, is not really uncommon. Let's be honest here, animals do all sorts of gross stuff. My dog loves to gnaw on beef bones. It is pretty nasty if you ask me, but he seems to enjoy it so I indulge him from time to time. Does that make me immoral? Nah, just a goofy girl who loves her dog enough to withstand being totally grossed out on occassion to make him happy. I won't judge him if he promises not to mock my love of artificial cheese.
"Groups that occasionally eat members of their own species range from lowly protozoa, slime molds, and sea slugs to insects, spiders, fish, reptiles (including dinosaurs; dinosaur bones have been found bearing the teeth marks of their kind), amphibians, birds, and at least 100 species of mammals, such as hamsters, rats, squirrels, bats, seals and sea lions, otters, polar and grizzly bears, lions, tigers, and chimpanzees. Researchers in New Zealand have even found the remains of a giant squid tentacle within the stomach of another giant squid-evidence that it either ate its compatriot, or accidentally ingested itself. Either option, scientists say, is cannibalism."
PBS - Nature
