should i let my chickens die naturally?

[writerskramp]

Don't patronize me. I've been petted many a time.. Get some..

 

[Tilhana]

God??? Lol, sorry. That’s where you lose me.

No need to poop on people's religious beliefs. Respectful debate is one thing but let's keep it civil.

 

[Aapomp831]

No need to poop on people's religious beliefs. Respectful debate is one thing but let's keep it civil.

Did you read the rest of what transpired? You’re chastising the wrong person.

 

[Aapomp831]

Don't patronize me. I've been petted many a time.. Get some..

 

[Tilhana]

Have you ever wanted to die.." Say two weeks of some sickness beyond your control.. Or some god awful upbringing.. Or the fact you are blessed with talent of taking life no one should ever have.. I have. Nine weeks in a coma.. crippled when I tried getting out of bed because I felt good. Like a pancake on the floor.. Polio through Scarlet Fever.. and I just wanted to live.. Life is precious, animal, vegetable, mineral.. " And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." Because they were all living things.. as you are as well.. Postscript: My brother who dotes on his animals, put down two dogs I know of because of old age.. Suffering I am sure was the reason or excuse.. I will not do so if it can be avoided! I stand by my words.. Words actually mean things.

That's totally up to you - I'm not saying anyone SHOULD be putting their animals down. I've actually never euthanized a chicken due to ill health or injury, I've always given them the chance to live, although I've never had a sick chicken linger longer than a few days before either getting better or dying. But I did have an elderly cat euthanized when she had developed an inoperable tumor in her liver, once it reached the point where she stopped eating and was hiding in closets - both signs that an animal is preparing to die - and when she was drinking constantly because, according to the vet, she could no longer keep herself hydrated due to some side effect of the tumor. At that point, I felt it seemed that she'd lost the desire to live and euthanasia was the most compassionate thing I could do for her. This, by the way, was after spending a lot of money on surgery for her a year before when the first operable tumor showed up.

Look, when you're responsible for an animal's life, that responsibility extends to how they die. You can see that as meaning you have the obligation to give them every chance to recover even if they're suffering, or as meaning that you have the obligation to compassionately euthanize them if they're in pain and past the point of recovery. And the decision will vary depending on the person and on the animal and its particula situation. I don't think there's any universal answer to what I think is the OP's original question, if I'm understanding it correctly. The important thing - or, at least, the most morally relevant factor - is that you're making the decision out of full respect for the animal and its best interests and not simply based on expediency or convenience to yourself.

That's not to say, of course that butchering for meat is immoral, but it's a different calculation from a situation where you're considering euthanasia for the animal's own welfare.

 

[Tilhana]

Plants scream.. you just can't hear them scream.. I once attended an abandon apple orchard as a child. I warned everyone they were angry.. you could hear them grown.. and that they were.. Pain is what we caused picking their fruit.. and eating it in their presence. This is not a nice place..

Actually, most fruit-bearing plants produce fruit because it entices animals to eat it. They digest the fruit, the seeds pass through intact and are deposited far away where they have a chance to grow out of the shadow of the parent plant. The equation is different for vegetables and many other plants, as I and others have pointed out in earlier comments, but fruit is the big counter-example of plants suffering by being eaten.

 

[Aapomp831]

Actually, most fruit-bearing plants produce fruit because it entices animals to eat it. They digest the fruit, the seeds pass through intact and are deposited far away where they have a chance to grow out of the shadow of the parent plant. The equation is different for vegetables and many other plants, as I and others have pointed out in earlier comments, but fruit is the big counter-example of plants suffering by being eaten.

Logic. Finally. Thank you.

 

[Tilhana]

Did you read the rest of what transpired? You’re chastising the wrong person.

Yeah catching up now and rapidly losing interest in this whole thread. You guys are both giving me a headache - and there's plenty of stones being thrown on both sides. Y'all keep saying you're done arguing but no one seems willing to let it go.

 

[Tilhana]

To both writerskramp and Aapomp831, while I always enjoy a healthy, civil debate about religion, the whole "your god is imaginary" vs "you're a heathen who's going to hell" argument is so tired I'm about ready to close this thread, which is unfortunate cuz I thought it was going in some really interesting directions.

Can we just agree that all people, whether Christian or athiest or whatever else, have their own valid and personal reasons for believing what they do and, more importantly, the right to hold those beliefs as long as they're not hurting anyone else, and stop using ad hominem attacks to try to prove to each each other that some of us hold the monopoly on truth?

I have seen this debate play out what feels like hundreds of times and I can tell you no one's mind is going to be changed; you're just going to make yourselves angry and anyone else on the thread annoyed and bored.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Whew. I am finally caught up. So this thread started out as an opinion thread, and I voted. And now I am going to ignore the side issues (fascinating as they were, cough) and answer the OP question. I have had a few chickens, over the last ten years, apparently die of old age. More likely, they died of ignorance and a lack of observation on my part. Since I joined BYC, however, I keep a closer watch on my birds, and have probably saved a few lives. Having said that, we have had to cull/euthanize a few.

One was an older hen who appeared to have suddenly developed a prolapsed vent. We didn't catch it till late in the afternoon, as she hid in the coop most of the day and we thought she was going broody. When we realized she was in trouble, it was far too late to help her. There was too much tissue protruding, and most of it was dried out and necrotic. She was obviously in pain and suffering. There was only one thing we could do to help her, and we did it as quickly as we could.

Our chickens are not pets, but we do enjoy them and care very much for them. They actually belong to God, who created them. We are their stewards and keepers. He cares for them as well; we are told He sees when a single sparrow falls. We take the bast care of them we can. So we could never allow one to suffer unnecessarily.