This I found just minutes ago. http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/201...ten-abandoned-once-they-stop-laying-eggs?lite
I saw this today when I got online. It really saddens me. The oldest hens of my flock are still living minus one who became egg bound. I'm sure a few of them are only laying a few times a week or less, but I told my husband that our first flock gets to live until they die naturally of old age. Some of the younger ones will be chicken dinner when they stop laying, but I think it is healthy for the flock to have a few "seasoned" members to show them the ropes. Especially since I now allow my flock to free range without my complete supervision. I finally started trusting my rooster to do his job, and so far he hasn't failed me. I don't know what I will do if I loose him, because he's my favorite and I think he is the best rooster ever. Even though I am starting to look at my chickens as part of the farm/ranch, I still see certain ones as pets. Beakman and the older hens especially.
I'm sure that same shelter got interviewed once before because the name rings a bell. They were not popular then either for suggesting they ban backyard chicken keeping. Personally I dont think stopping people keeping chickens will help. People who would do that will just get some other animal and abandon that. The idiots dumping need to be educated or fined not a blanket ban on everyone. And education needs to include not dumping roosters as well.
This is another article linked to the first one. BYC's owner Rob Ludlow is quoted. http://www.nbcnews.com/health/backy...hen-hipsters-cant-cope-critics-say-6C10533508
I do think we need to revisit why we keep the birds and come up with a more sound logic for those we do keep. A very large majority of Americans do seem to consider pets / backyard poultry as buy, use for a while, then throw away. Very little concern seems to be about long-term arrangements. We buy them, usually exercise some control over reproduction but for the most part justify a system where they are produced by a relatively small number of parties specifically for the purpose of sale for use as pets. I think we should actually effort to disperse the breeding and make so people are more connected to the animals, their life-cycles, and how they are valued by the community. Heritage breeds would be best since they also need more interest in them. More trade between keepers of the poultry and less reliance upon the one way distribution system currently in place. Connectivity is currently too low. I no very few keepers of poultry in my area and many seem to actually avoid contact. I expect such with gamechickens but not with the backyard poultry folks which are a distinct population.
