should i let my chickens die naturally?

[Chickenlover0810]

if my chickens are healthy and happy I will keep them for the rest of their lives, whether they are laying eggs or not. but if they are sick I will try to help them but most times I will have to cull them, I do not want them to suffer. there is a exception though right now because my flock was diagnosed with Mareks disease soooooo anytime any bird starts showing symptoms we will cull them immediately

 

[catballou]

hi!

since chickens would not lay that much eggs if they would be in the natural habitat is it moraly right to let them die because egg laying problem... 300 eggs a year is too much and it doesnt seem like it is fair to let them suffer from liver damage egg peritrosis etc.
what do you think?

I have a hard time letting them die on their own. I'll pay a vet to do it if I can find one that will.

 

[AntiqueB]

My chickens are my pets, so I would treat them as such. They are welcome to live as long as they can, but if they are in terminal pain or suffering, I would humanely euthanize them. This is what I did for my dogs; once quality of life is not there, euthanize.

Nevertheless, until that time comes, I will enjoy the eggs!

 

[catballou]

I don't think you can argue that we shouldn't eat plants OR meat. There's nothing left!

On the OPS question, I couldn't let an animal suffer if I could humanely euthanise it. And I no longer keep hybrid chickens that are bred to lay and lay and burn out quickly and with painful egg related issues, for that very reason.

I don't judge anyone who eats meat, or who is vegan or anything inbetween. It is a personal choice.

I do however judge people who hunt any animal just for sport. And those who overbreed dogs in puppy farms, and anyone who is cruel to animals.

Totally agree!

 

[Tammyoeo]

Do you need to eat? Cause I do.

Wouldn’t it just be simpler if we didn’t! lol, I keep waiting for the Jetsons capsules of food to be made. Lol

 

[Evansgloria51]

hi!

since chickens would not lay that much eggs if they would be in the natural habitat is it moraly right to let them die because egg laying problem... 300 eggs a year is too much and it doesnt seem like it is fair to let them suffer from liver damage egg peritrosis etc.
what do you think?

My chickens are like family and I am rather attached to each one

 

[Tilhana]

yes but eating the apple and throwing the core in the garbage destroys the potential life of all those seeds. So it does hurt the plant's ability to reproduce.

That's why all my food waste goes either to my chickens or, if it's unfit for them, to the compost. It causes me physical pain to put food waste in the trash, eg when on vacation or at someone else's house. I would actually like to take it even farther; once I have my own land, I plan to build a composting toilet so that the organic matter I consume doesn't go to waste in a septic tank or sewer. Talk about waste. All that fertility that's been extracted from our soils gets locked up in humanure, and instead of returning it to the ground, most of it is flushed out to sea where it causes harmful algal blooms and dead zones.

But to be fair, speaking as a former vegetarian, I never believed that it was morally wrong to eat animals. I just wasn't comfortable with it because I liked animals and was grossed out by the thought of eating them. Being a vegetarian doesn't necessarily mean you're making a statement about the morality of eating meat. I also felt - and still do - that if you're not comfortable with the idea of butchering an animal, or even seeing the animal you're going to eat while it's alive without having a lot of cognitive dissonance, then you probably shouldn't be eating it. Most people don't have that problem with plants. The hypocrisy comes when you start distancing yourself from the source of your food. I know people who eat a ton of meat but don't want to think about the fact that it came from some cute animal.

Personally, I now eat meat but focus more on only consuming animals that were either caught in the wild (mainly fish) or raised on a real farm on pasture and without antibiotics or hormones (either by me or from a local farm where we get all our purchased meat from). I generally don't get meat at restaurants, unless I have a good idea of where they're getting it from. I think what's more important than whether or not you eat meat, is how the animals you eat are treated while they're alive. The only meat I have a moral problem with is the kind that comes from CAFOs or anywhere else where animals are basically tortured and kept in deplorable concentration camp-like conditions. But again, that only happens because people are so disconnected from their food.

 

[jonibc]

Hi. I basically agree with you. However, I was wondering. As a vegetarian, why is your line drawn at animals? Plants are genetically modified and grown in ways that really hurt the environment just like factory farmed animals. Plants have been proven to react to stimuli, and form symbiotic complex relationships with animals and other plants. Why is it totally fine to eat a Monsanto tomato, but not a cornish x or an egg? Or why do most people not think twice when they rip an apple from their mother tree and tear it's flesh with their teeth? Or dice an heirloom carrot into 100 pieces? I get really hung up on this. Because plants don't have a nervous system YOU can recognize they are morally free of guilt to eat? Or they don't make noise when you pick/kill them? Either way for one to eat something has to sacrifice its life. That is just the way it is. Whether it is a Waygu or a soy bean. Why is it acceptable to kill plants not animals?

So what are we supposed to eat? Are you implying that, because plants react to stimuli, eating them is no different than eating animals? Plants don’t feel love like animals do. I’ve never had a rose bush light up and wave its branches when I arrive home. I eat plants for my health but surely you don’t equate the consciousness of plants to that of animals. By the way, study after study shows eating a plant-based diet reduces inflammation and disease in humans.

 

[the_peanut_coop]

If a chicken was old and happy I would let it live out it's life til' the last egg. If it was suffering it would be another story!

 

[kimberjay]

I just want to say how much I enjoyed this post. I know it went off on a few topics but the question was open to multiple interpretations. I liked them all. However, what I loved was even though some of the topics could hold strong opinions no one became disrespectful or angry. In our world today that is amazing. Thank you all for the reminder that these things can be discussed rationally and respectfully.