should i let my chickens die naturally?

[writerskramp]

No, but you can while they are going through it a lot of times. I am speaking of people of course. I have been with a few people while they died and not too many of them enjoyed the process of reaching the final event. That process can be quite unpleasant to say the least. That is why we now have hospice care which is basically trying to give as much comfort as possible. At the end they basically drug you up and cut off all nutrition to speed it up and let you go in as little discomfort and awareness as possible.
There is a very real thing called suffering and it happens in animals as well as humans.

You have proved my point.. you just don't know it.. and likely never will in this life.

 

[Chick-a-de]

I just want to know what humane euthanasia is? I had to cull a disabled and very mean angry rooster recently and wish there is another way, especially if Im not eating it.
Thanks

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I just want to know what humane euthanasia is? I had to cull a disabled and very mean angry rooster recently and wish there is another way, especially if Im not eating it.
Thanks

It's basically the fastest, least painful way to kill. So if you're not very strong physically, you do something that doesn't require a strongman for example. Usually it's best if the bird isn't even aware of the end until it's over

 

[bill3607]

You have proved my point.. you just don't know it.. and likely never will in this life.

Really?.....ok then.

 

[writerskramp]

Really?.....ok then.

Really

 

[the old rooster]

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?

For Century's People lived day to day to survive, and not much more than that, This did not leave to a lot of free time to try to answer all the Crazy Scenario's we come up with . I Respect all the feelings that people have , I just believe we will buy a Chicken that was Mass produced in cages but we dont want to respect a Hen we Raised ourselves and Harvest the Animal to feed our family. Peace ,Love, Compassion , and Empathy are all the good things we need to strive to Perfect, Animal Husbandry is a Basic way of life . As Humans we Must raise food to live , So rising an animal to Senior Citizenship is not Natural it is Selfish to do and must be avoided , to euthanize an Animal that could have feed a Human or even another Animal is not "The Way".As long as it is Killed Quickly to reduce (time) suffering is not a bad thing . Peace with Nature will set You Free

 

[maroongrad]

I have a Creme Legbar that is now an Opinionated Lawn Ornament. As long as she's happy, she's welcome to eat the bugs in the yard and keep and eye on the sky for the rest of the flock. She has attitude, and we adore her Our silkie hasn't laid yet this year and may be done, too...and she's also very much a pet.
We don't lack the funds to care for them, and they are pets with the eggs just being bonus. During the winter, we don't use artificial light, so most of them take a break from laying. This might be an issue for people who have big flocks or depend on the eggs, but ours just go to make friends and family happy. We'll add a few more birds each year (this year, we'll add an Ameracauna or two, a leghorn, and a cayuga hen), and probably lose one or two to illness or injury or age, and it works out. As long as everyone fits in the duck box and chicken coop on cold days, we're keeping them! If they don't, we're still keeping them, we're just buying bigger enclosures...

 

[Tilhana]

Kamma is the Pali word for action. In Sanskrit it is Karma. The full phase you are speaking about is kammavipaka, or the fruition of action. Action = cause⇢effect. Once the killing is done, there is no more cow, no more animal to speak of it is just flesh. Eating it doesn't carry the same consequence, if any. I'm not sure (well, maybe dietary consequences). Monastics may not request meat or eat food they suspect contains flesh of an animal killed for them. They can't see or hear or suspect an animal was killed for them. They can't dig in the dirt, pick fruit, cut fruit with seeds, uproot a plant, and they must filter their water and return any living being found to the source. Raw meat can't be cooked in monastery kitchens or stored on monastery grounds. While some Buddhist schools are vegetarian or vegan, the Buddha never forbid the eating of meat, except within those guidelines for monastics and with the first precept for laypeople. - this could get a lot longer but I already lost my first draft that I was writing on my phone. it is very complex and I don't pretend to know more than what is helpful for me at this point.

I also believe that there is a point where one can understand an animal is clearly suffering and has little hope of recovery. I don't think that at that point to take the life of that animal would carry the same negative karmic effect because the intention is to relieve the suffering. Intention is the driver behind action/kamma. I don't let my animals suffer.

We are speaking of worldviews here and it is impossible to explain a worldview in a post, especially before coffee (if ever). If one can peek outside their own worldview for a while to try to understand the views of others, we would have far less discord in our world. I also appreciate we can exchange very different ideas in the spirit of communication.

I totally agree about the suffering animal. I mean it's a judgement call, I don't think it's immoral to choose *not* to kill a suffering animal, whether because you think it might have a chance to live or because you don't feel comfortable taking a life. But taking a life to end suffering is certainly justifiable if the intention is there.

I know there are multiple schools of Buddhism and some different ideas about eating meat. I find some of them to be a bit more internally consistent than others, but then I'm not an expert on it so I could just be misunderstanding. But even in the vegetarian sects, if you're going to argue that killing a plant is wrong, then I feel like it's a bit of a cheat to say that it doesn't count to eat it if you didn't kill it yourself. I'm sure that in predominantly Buddhist communities, for example, there are people who buy or harvest extra food to give to the monks that they know will need to eat. If the monks weren't depending on the community for food, those plants wouldn't be killed, so they are still indirectly responsible for the killing of those plants. It's the same argument that people make against buying consumer goods that involve the exploitation of vulnerable people (or animals). As long as there's a demand for those products, suppliers will continue to produce them with no motivation to change their practices. You can't escape the bad karma by distancing yourself from the original action. In my opinion, anyway.

Just a disclaimer, I'm not trying to disparage Buddhism; I think most religions and philosophies are similarly valid prisms through which to view the world, mostly organized around the same central moral themes and mostly differing in the details. I have more of an a la carte approach that draws from many different belief systems because orthodoxies and organized institutions don't resonate with me personally, but that doesn't make them any less valid than the ones that do. Just want to be clear, when I debate concepts of Buddhism, I'm not saying that they're wrong or that other people shouldn't follow it, only that it those particular aspects don't resonate with my personal world view.

I totally agree that the world would be a better place if more people were open to listening to other people's worldviews. That's one of the reasons I enjoy debating philosophy and religion, when people are open to it and don't interpret it as a personal attack. I think most of us agree on most of the important things, and the relatively minute differences are just reflections of differences in priorities, values, preferences, lifestyle, opinions, etc, which aren't worth getting too worked up about because they mostly come down to personal preference, and without which differences the world would be a pretty boring place.

 

[Tilhana]

Evolution is amazing. I agree. But I’m not going to Honey I Shrunk the Kids across my lawn everyday. This is a pointless discussion.

No but the point is that everything living has value and should be respected, but we all have to eat things that are alive, so we should not act as if animals have some exhalted position that makes them exempt from being eaten just because they are more like us than plants are.

 

[theoldchick]

I just want to know what humane euthanasia is? I had to cull a disabled and very mean angry rooster recently and wish there is another way, especially if Im not eating it.
Thanks

Humane euthanasia is done swiftly and without adding stress to the animal. That can be either by cervical dislocation or chemical.