Other people's attitudes toward chickens*Update* Another one

[elevan]

I feel your pain as I recently nursed a couple of chicks that didn't make it. To me - my chickens are pets and livestock. But please try not to be too harsh to true farmers who raise livestock. If they thought of all their animals as pets they wouldn't be able to raise them up and send them to slaughter (which is generally the intended purpose of livestock, like it or not). Maybe you don't eat meat...idk...but I do. I know people on both sides of the fence as for caring for livestock (pets and business). Both sides are good people (I know there are some bad ones out there) and treat their animals humanely...just because they don't treat them as pets doesn't make them bad. And a true farmer is in business to make money (a little anyway) and vet bills and medication on a less than week old chick are in their mind (and mine) not a good business decision. If I had not already had the things on hand to nurse the chicks I did then I would have culled them. But I did nurse them and they still died, so those farmers would argue that I wasted perfectly good (and expensive) medicine...which I have to admit would be true. It may sound cruel to say "It's just a chicken" but what they are saying is that "life is about survival of the fittest". We're human so we tend to put human emotions on everything.

I'm sorry that you're feeling this pain. I'm glad that you have the compassion to care for the chick (and the time and money). I'm saddened that you think the farmer cruel for allowing nature to take it's course...He can't be all that bad....after all he did decide to bring you the second chick.

Best of luck to you.

 

[yinepu]

My birds are livestock.. however I will take the time and trouble to tend to one when it's sick or injured.. I won't spend hundreds of dollars on a sick bird.. but if others choose to that's their right and it's not up to me to judge them

My EX husband used to complain that i had dogs IN the house... that they were "JUST dogs and belonged outside" I informed him that the dogs were there as pets, home security, and companionship.. they had their "jobs"
he would complain because I would take the time to tend to a sick chicken.. after all it was "just a chicken".. I informed him that the chicken was an investment.. it would provide us with eggs and eventually meat
My EX didn't work.. he sat on his behind watching soap operas.. drinking.. expecting me to wait on him hand and foot..
needless to say I kept the birds and the dogs... and divorced him... he seemed a bit surprised that I didnt want him hanging around anymore.. I informed him that he was "just a man" and could be replaced easily enough
I was right too

 

[tinychicky]

'it's just a chicken' well WE'RE just people!!!!!!!!

i hate that when people say oh well it's just a [insert animal name here]. that's stupid. just cause they are different doesn't mean they aren't any less significant than we are!

 

[Velvet Hairpiece]

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That's exactly what I say to people when they say this about any other creature. Species elitism really ticks me off. Do they REALLY think humans are more important than ANYTHING on this planet? Please, give me a break!

 

[savingpurple]

wonderful job??? LOL I am working...that is it.

I work at TSC. We get chicks in,once a year for a period of usually 5 weeks, but extended it to almost 10 weeks this year. The hatchery is a good one, but we get some in that get trampled, and many that get pecked very badly. This is how I came to own 2 white leghorns.

They were badly injured. One in the butt, it was pecked open. I put meds on it, liquid, store use. It turned her purple on the under side, and the back side. I took her home as,after that, they seen the color and proceeded to peck again and reopened the wound. That was my start of SavingPurpleButt...LOL

The next white leghorn...she was pecked open, in the side of the neck. It was bad. Wasn't going to use the Blue meds I used on Purple butt. So I grabbed Wonder dust. I then wrapped her little head in vet wrap, and she laid there. Thought if she was alive the next day, she was meant to survive. She was. So I took off the vet wrap, and she was up, and walking,and drinking.


She had her own stock tank to herself for days, and chirped to be with another. She was eating and drinking.

I bought 5 NHR's and bought purplebutt. Then we got more chicks in, the neck wound chick, which I now call Ms Pissy, had to be moved.....no one wanted a defective chick. She looked bad. So she came home.

Had to keep purple butt seperated from the NHR as they were picking on her because of her color, meds stained. Then I brougt Ms Pissy home and her and purple butt were a team. They still were until, ms Pissy attacked the other hens.

Ms Pissy is in solitary confinment. Feel really bad.

That is my story and I am sticking to it !!!

No special job, just have cared for, for 4 years, at work and at home the weak, the sick, and injured. I have only lost one. I hand feed, hold, cuddle. and love.

This is why I CANNOT give up on Ms. Pissy. She was never like this,and there is a reason....just need to find out what it is.

 

[sumi]

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Well done!

 

[sumi]

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I wish we had a lot more people like you in this world

 

[Delta2 23]

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Keep up your good work!

 

[sumi]

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That's exactly what I say to people when they say this about any other creature. Species elitism really ticks me off. Do they REALLY think humans are more important than ANYTHING on this planet? Please, give me a break!

You've just quoted me! I say that all the time. In fact I'm planning on taking it one step further...
I'm planning on getting another tattoo soon, well, as soon as I can afford to go to a really skilled artist. I don't have a design yet, but I'm thinking a hand holding a small chick with the French word "egalite" (with accents on the e's). It means equality. I'm thinking a bit closer to the time I want to ask all the BYC members to post photo's/drawings so I can choose one for my tat. What do you think?

 

[sumi]

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No, but I will. Did read "The good good pig" by Sy Montgomery. Excellent book and she's written one about her chickens now, which I'm trying to get a copy of.