Quote:
Oh my goodness Billy - you're much nicer than me. I would have refused to sell them any of my birds. If they'll treat them like that in front of me, who knows how they would be treated once sold. And locking you in the pen???? I would have told those people that they didn't know how to treat animals (or people) and they could leave without my birds. I do have a sign posted in my yard now and it has helped a lot. I no longer have little kids and their parents asking to use my bathroom, and people do seem to keep their kids closer. Although I still cringe when I see a van full of children pull up in the driveway. I do usually catch the birds for sale and have them already in the front yard for people to look at. Most people still want to look and as long as they're well behaved I don't mind. But I think we've all had those days and it's enough to make me rethink selling chickens at all. My 7 year old is usually in the yard with me and he will go in the house to get away from ill behaved children. I once had a customer that would let his little girl empty the food bin of goat food, with me telling her she was going to make them sick by feeding them too much - not to mention wasting my money. He is no longer a customer because I told him I would prefer to deliver eggs to him. When he couldn't bring his bratty child out to run around for a couple of hours he quit buying eggs from me. And I'm fine with that. It's really sad that there are so many kids today that haven't been taught how to behave around animals or people. I do not enjoy dealing with the public, much prefer the company of animals. Oh, it's not always kids. I once had a grown man stamp his foot at me and raise his voice to me because I wouldn't sell him one of my breeding maran roos. I had told him no, he starts to tell me why I don't need that rooster. I pulled his money back out of my pocket and told him to just unload my other birds from his truck if he wasn't happy. He calmed down right away and he did not get any more of my birds. He also has not been back, even though he keeps calling. People can be scary.