Strictly pet chickens! Anyone??

[karen71]

At this time I have 18 chickens
I will not et them -I will eat the eggs when they are done they can eat the bugs for their keep.

I wish sometime I could raise the met chickens but I like to buy them already cleaned
I watched purplechickens video and another guys message on slaughtering and it just seems too messy for me -

I applaud those who can do it

I would suggest if you are weak in the stomache not to go to the meat chickens spot

I think there are lots of folks whop keep their chickens as pets and only cull if nessasary due to illness
mine do not come into the house they are still an outside pet

i have not had any roos yet - but I think I would give it to the Amish before doing it myself -too much work

 

[RachelFromTheBlackLagoon]

Good stuff everyone! I'll also be one of those whackos who brings my birds to the vet if I have to. I do it for my dogs, cats, and even my precious rats. People do it for their parakeets and macaws. Just because I can buy a chicken for $5 doesn't make its life worth any less. I adopted one of my dogs for $5. If he gets sick should I cull him and say "I can get 20 more dogs for what I'll be paying the vet"?That's in no way meant to start a debate! Again, it's just how I personally feel about my animals. As far as euthanizing (which is a word I can tolerate much more than "cull" haha) myself, if I had to do it I was reading about how somebody used some kind of engine fluid in a cooler.... I could probably do that, for my bird's sake. I had to do something similar with one of my rats when the vet was closed. Go to sleep and not wake up. No bloody or violent stuff for me. I can watch the most gruesome of horror movies all day long, but when it comes to animals...well, just thinking or hearing about it makes me hysterical haha.

 

[NoelTate]

Mine are strictly pets. For moral reasons, I do not believe in killing animals other than survival. Since meat is not necessary for me to survive, I do not believe in killing them. I certainly would never kill one I had raised and cared for and supposedly love. I can't think of a greater betrayal of an animal's trust than to kill it and eat it. Mine will live out their lives happy and well-cared for, as living creatures should be. Sure do like their eggs, though!

 

[sparkles2307]

We got 6 banty's purely for pets. They will live their lives and not be eaten when their time comes. However, DH and I both grew up on farms and were raised with the understanding that: #1, if God didnt want us to eat animals then He wouldnt have made them out of meat... and #2, everything needs to have a purpose or its not financially productive. We care deeply for them and give them good lives, lots of fresh air and free ranging (the cows have 50 acres to graze and enjoy) and consideration. And we make thier death quick and as painless as possible. We wouldnt do this if it meant suffering for anyone.

 

[flakey chick]

Our only pets are our chickens. We are not home enough to have dogs or cats, but chickens make great pets for us. We won't kill them just because they stop laying. They will either die of natural causes or be put to sleep. The problem with keeping them as pets are the roosters.
Even people who just couldn't imagine eating their pet rooster have changed their minds once that rooster attacks a child.

I don't think I could keep a roo. It's hard to get sexed bantams so that meant culling 4 roos (and it looks like I'll have to re-home another). They were very lucky. A guy on Craigs list wanted to buy bantam roos and hens for his hobby farm. I gave him my roosters for free. I figure giving them to someone who wanted to pay for them gave them a better fate than just advertising free roosters. I still would have given them to someone to eat as long as they weren't to be used for those illegal purposes that we can't discus here.

 

[bigcats]

I'm a pet chicken girl too. I wanted them for the eggs too, so I could eat eggs and not worry about the conditions the chickens were being raised in.

But if they were to never lay an egg, that would be ok. I don't believe a being's life has value only for what it can give me. I don't think they have to be any more "productive" than any other one of my pets. My cats certainly don't produce anything (except bills), in fact, one of them I can't even touch, but they still deserve safety and unconditional care.

I was really mixed going into this because the rooster issue - I got big girls so the uncertainty of roosters wouldn't be an issue but I realize that in doing that I only passed the "dirty work" onto someone else who probably did dispose of a great many boys. I partially justify it by thinking that there is an offset from never again contributing to factory farm profits by buying supermarket eggs.

I'm also very committed to doing this chicken thing in a "predator friendly" way. I'm doing all I can to exclude predators but will not harm them in the process. They lived here first.

Anyway, I'm vegetarian. I'm not tempted to eat them.

For those who do raise and butcher their own chickens, I think that if you're going to eat meat, that is a more ethical way to do it.

 

[cinder_ella]

My chickens will be pets only as well, I ordered 15 batam chicks (still waiting oh so impatiently for them arrive!) and I can't have roos here so when they start crowing I will be giving all the little roos away to my friend who owns a farm out in the country and they will lead a happy long life there!

I also can't eat anything I've named, it has to be packaged and looking nothing like the animal it came from

 

[hikerchick]

Quote:
I agree. I am a vegetarian (I eat eggs and milk products) and I will soon have about 75 birds. I will never eat them; they are egg pets.

I don't think it is wrong to eat meat, though, and I support anyone's efforts to get away from factory farmed meat and eggs.

We are the wave of the future.

 

[horsejody]

Mine all have names. They are pets with the added benefit of eggs. However, I think that there is nothing wrong with raising chickens for food.

 

[farmerlor]

I have pet chickens, pet ducks, pet geese and pet turkeys that will never be eaten and will live out their lives doing what they do best, eating, breeding and laying eggs. I am a vegetarian but my family is not so we also have some meat chickens that we grow just for the freezer. They too are treated with the utmost respect but I grew up on a farm so while I don't eat them I have no real problem raising them for that purpose.