Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

Other than begging for food (yes, they have plenty) whenever we appear, they completely ignore us.

I don’t keep mine as pets. But Im certain the chickens communicate (in their own way/language) with me for other reasons. Like getting talkative when I clean the coop.

I daily see more and more evidence of my country being destroyed by malicious and greedy SOB’s,

What are SOB’s?

 

[fluffycrow]

What are SOB’s?

Sons of female dogs, I imagine

 

[BDutch]

Chicken dinner!

This reply is not especially meant for you Shad, but a general thought about how we treat animals, use and abuse them for fun and meat. The chicken in the pot just triggered me to think out loud.

I suppose we all agree that eating animals that had a good life is better than eating animals who suffered throughout their lives. Unfortunately most people don’t really care. Proof: in the supermarket they choose the cheap meat and not the ones with a label indicating they had a better life. Very few have the opportunity to buy from a friend, knowing they had a good life, which is obviously about the best we can do if we want to eat meat without killing ourselves.

I don’t really understand people who eat chickens or other animals every day, knowing they are such wonderful creatures. And if they do eat animals, why criticise people who kill a rooster bc he doesn’t behave like they want him to behave. Why needs one animal protection, and others can be slaughtered for meat?

There are more strange things going on with chickens. Buying female chicks from large hatcheries seems common practice in the US. People buy these chicks often/mainly to avoid to have to deal with cockerels themselves. Some people don’t even realise 50% of the chicks were killed to make this possible. And what about the luck they need to survive the transport. It seems the chicks often have health problems bc of the nasty transport.

Letting a creature suffer and die that they don’t see seems normal for many people. On the other hand most people do care and feel responsible for the animal they have bought or gained. It often becomes an animal to care for intensely if they get sick. Some even care for their chickens like a family member, no matter the vet costs.

Therefore I think the feelings people have for animals are completely un-logical and our thoughts towards animals are all mixed up.

It really would help the animals in general if people start to respect the ‘gifts’ from animals on our plate. Eating smaller portions or a vegan meal more often would help a lot too.

 

[RoyalChick]

This reply is not especially meant for you Shad, but a general thought about how we treat animals, use and abuse them for fun and meat. The chicken in the pot just triggered me to think out loud.

I suppose we all agree that eating animals that had a good life is better than eating animals who suffered throughout their lives. Unfortunately most people don’t really care. Proof: in the supermarket they choose the cheap meat and not the ones with a label indicating they had a better life. Very few have the opportunity to buy from a friend, knowing they had a good life, which is obviously about the best we can do if we want to eat meat without killing ourselves.

I don’t really understand people who eat chickens or other animals every day, knowing they are such wonderful creatures. And if they do eat animals, why criticise people who kill a rooster bc he doesn’t behave like they want him to behave. Why needs one animal protection, and others can be slaughtered for meat?

There are more strange things going on with chickens. Buying female chicks from large hatcheries seems common practice in the US. People buy these chicks often/mainly to avoid to have to deal with cockerels themselves. Some people don’t even realise 50% of the chicks were killed to make this possible. And what about the luck they need to survive the transport. It seems the chicks often have health problems bc of the nasty transport.

Letting a creature suffer and die that they don’t see seems normal for many people. On the other hand most people do care and feel responsible for the animal they have bought or gained. It often becomes an animal to care for intensely if they get sick. Some even care for their chickens like a family member, no matter the vet costs.

Therefore I think the feelings people have for animals are completely un-logical and our thoughts towards animals are all mixed up.

It really would help the animals in general if people start to respect the ‘gifts’ from animals on our plate. Eating smaller portions or a vegan meal more often would help a lot too.

Proximity fosters empathy and distance enables lack of caring.
It is not just about animals, also about people.
To facilitate the killing of groups of people it is common to dehumanize them in various ways so they feel like ‘other’ and less close.
Money can be raised for the victim of an accident in your community. Worse injuries across the world are hard to fund treatments for.
Once a chicken is in your care it is yours and you have a responsibility - they are ‘family’ of sorts.
If a chicken never comes into your care it is just part of the mass of chickens out there that you cannot do anything about.
Indirect contributions like funding the industry or supply chain that causes suffering are harder to internalize and ‘feel’.
I think Richard Dawkins would easily explain this phenomenon in a way that makes it entirely logical. Caring for things close to you like family is necessary to preserve the gene pool. Species or others is a more abstract concept and therefore lower priority.
It is all wired into our brains.
With intellect you can overcome your biological wiring, but it is not a natural act.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

What are SOB’s?

Sons of female dogs, I imagine

Yes, what fluffycrow wrote. It’s one of those abbreviations that’s used at least as much in speaking as the words themselves.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I think I may have found a place I can get dual purpose chicken to eat. I much prefer the taste. Camr out well if a bit on the calorific side; the recipe requires 125g of double cream and 16g of Parmesan cheese.
I offset the naughty stuff with grilled asparagus and green olives.
No I don't know what I'm doing cooking dinner after midnight.
View attachment 4246001

well, no wonder it tastes good!

 

[kattabelly]

modern farming methods can reduce a 'breed' effectively to one, two or just a few individuals in the male line. See e.g. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesal...re-descended-from-just-2-bulls-thats-not-good

Indeed, although artificial insemination isn't used so much in the UK as it is in some other countries.

Cow tax:

 

[fuzzi]

Proximity fosters empathy and distance enables lack of caring.
It is not just about animals, also about people.
To facilitate the killing of groups of people it is common to dehumanize them in various ways so they feel like ‘other’ and less close.
Money can be raised for the victim of an accident in your community. Worse injuries across the world are hard to fund treatments for.
Once a chicken is in your care it is yours and you have a responsibility - they are ‘family’ of sorts.
If a chicken never comes into your care it is just part of the mass of chickens out there that you cannot do anything about.
Indirect contributions like funding the industry or supply chain that causes suffering are harder to internalize and ‘feel’.
I think Richard Dawkins would easily explain this phenomenon in a way that makes it entirely logical. Caring for things close to you like family is necessary to preserve the gene pool. Species or others is a more abstract concept and therefore lower priority.
It is all wired into our brains.
With intellect you can overcome your biological wiring, but it is not a natural act.

In The Thorn Birds there's a quote about caring, empathy. It was about how city dwellers worry about how thousands of sheep are cared for, but don't exhibit the same compassion for the thousands of people living around them, but often hold them in contempt.

ETA: found the passages

It's not worth getting upset about, Mrs. Dominic. Down in the city they don't know how the other half lives, and they can afford the luxury of doting on their animals as if they were children. Out here it's different. You'll never see man, woman or child in need of help go ignored out here, yet in the city those same people who dote on their pets will completely ignore a cry of help from a human being. ... We all have contempt for whatever there's too many of. Out here it's sheep, but in the city it's people.

 

[Molpet]

I wouldn't write he has no problems with his new circumstances, after all, he was destined to leave home at some point and, like many young, a drop in living standards is to be expected. He's late leaving home and he probably realises that the prospects being the head of his own tribe were remote. He's got two, erm, interesting hens to start with and despite all the need ten hens per rooster comments, I've seen cockerels struggle for months just to attract one hen, sometimes with her friend, and live for years with that arrangement.

It's the how they go about introducing new blood and all the rest of the social stuff when there are other realistic options that led me to continue what I learnt from Uncle and go for the tribe and multi coop keeping method. When a cockerel hatched on the farm in Catalonia and crowed, he got answers and they weren't from his family; that is, there are more of my species out there and there isn't anything stopping me checking the hens out, from a safe distance should they have a rooster.

There were quite a few tales of chickens leaving home and moving to another farm or going feral on the mountain I lived with. I remember Kcan2 talking about his chicken visitors from another farm.
He's doing mostly the right things but he's got a way to go yet. Ask me again in ten months time.

Near me people find "dumped" poultry and I always wondered how many were chased off or left the flock on their own.
I have had some poultry show up and found the owners that wanted them back. They weren't dumped but attracted by mine.

Thank you! Yes, handsome Stilton gets another place on the calendar as Mr. February 2026. He was also Mr. November in 2023. I'm actually curious how many roosters live long enough to be featured more than once. He's an adventurer so always putting himself in interesting spots to be photographed.

Tax: paparazzi photo of Stilton mid-beauty routine as this year's molt wraps up. Sharp eyes will find Eula, Miss February 2021-2022, in the back-left.

View attachment 4245915

Congratulations

This reply is not especially meant for you Shad, but a general thought about how we treat animals, use and abuse them for fun and meat. The chicken in the pot just triggered me to think out loud.

I suppose we all agree that eating animals that had a good life is better than eating animals who suffered throughout their lives. Unfortunately most people don’t really care. Proof: in the supermarket they choose the cheap meat and not the ones with a label indicating they had a better life. Very few have the opportunity to buy from a friend, knowing they had a good life, which is obviously about the best we can do if we want to eat meat without killing ourselves.

I don’t really understand people who eat chickens or other animals every day, knowing they are such wonderful creatures. And if they do eat animals, why criticise people who kill a rooster bc he doesn’t behave like they want him to behave. Why needs one animal protection, and others can be slaughtered for meat?

There are more strange things going on with chickens. Buying female chicks from large hatcheries seems common practice in the US. People buy these chicks often/mainly to avoid to have to deal with cockerels themselves. Some people don’t even realise 50% of the chicks were killed to make this possible. And what about the luck they need to survive the transport. It seems the chicks often have health problems bc of the nasty transport.

Letting a creature suffer and die that they don’t see seems normal for many people. On the other hand most people do care and feel responsible for the animal they have bought or gained. It often becomes an animal to care for intensely if they get sick. Some even care for their chickens like a family member, no matter the vet costs.

Therefore I think the feelings people have for animals are completely un-logical and our thoughts towards animals are all mixed up.

It really would help the animals in general if people start to respect the ‘gifts’ from animals on our plate. Eating smaller portions or a vegan meal more often would help a lot too.

One of the reasons I have chickens is because I don't like how they are raised for the store.
However, the store has meat chicken and turkey on sale for less than a dollar a lb. It costs me around $7 a lb in feed alone. I am blessed to be able to afford this. ... which also limits how much I want to eat in one sitting

 

[SimpleJenn]

Stilton, another rooster name I love. A person on BYC has a rooster called Cheapshot.

I saw on FB a rooster named "Beefcheeks" due to a misunderstanding with a neighbor who didn't speak English very well.
Every time I think of the name I smile.
BeefCheeks