Venting about Roosters

[Mosey2003]

Yeah it's pretty messed up. Everyone claims they love animals taking the utmost care of hens naming them the best food, bedding everything. Until someone realizes they may have a baby rooster then everybody says basically to murder them. That's ok as long as it's the codeword "freezercamp". But I guess it's ok to kill them though from all the self proclaimed animal lovers.

Would it make you feel better to know that I murder my hens too?

 

[Folly's place]

Many of us do eat chicken. Yummy!

 

[Peepsi]

Yeah it's pretty messed up. Everyone claims they love animals taking the utmost care of hens naming them the best food, bedding everything. Until someone realizes they may have a baby rooster then everybody says basically to murder them. That's ok as long as it's the codeword "freezercamp". But I guess it's ok to kill them though from all the self proclaimed animal lovers.

You can't "murder" a food animal, even if it is a pet as well.
Yes, we kill them. For food. These roosters aren't just being killed, they're being eaten as well. Chickens provide nutrition in the form of both eggs and meat. They are also pets. They can be both pets and food. I totally love my chickens, in many ways!

 

[Mamas_Looney_Farm]

You can't "murder" a food animal, even if it is a pet as well.
Yes, we kill them. For food. These roosters aren't just being killed, they're being eaten as well. Chickens provide nutrition in the form of both eggs and meat. They are also pets. They can be both pets and food. I totally love my chickens, in many ways!

Chickens were never meant to be a pet. They provide food and eggs. There is a reason they are FARM ANIMALS and there is a reason petstores don’t sell chickens like they do hamsters. I am an animal lover but killing a chicken is NOT murder. There are chickens here for a reason and that reason is food.

 

[Mamas_Looney_Farm]

Moved to the country, got things ready for chooks then picked out 8 different chicks from TSC. Wanted to look out and see different colors and sizes. We do not care for eggs and rarely eat meat. Just always wanted chickens. From that 8 we now have 32 total mixed breeds with 11 being roos. I love my roos!! Only had one asshole one that after months of his attacks more n more aggressive, he was culled. The others all respect us... moving to the rear of their run/coop areas when we come in, they treat their girls nice. We hatched a few babies this fall and two of my boys actually take an interest in the babes in their areas. We had a surprise cold snap one weekend and when I checked on them my handsome Joey even had his two babies under his wing for warmth!! One babe was on his back sleeping one night. But then the hen in that run/coop runs the show. Poor Joey is literally henpecked. She made him sit in the nest box on the eggs one time. Lol!! But my big boy Mr Spot comes up cause he does like to be petted. Most of ours are bantams but the boys add eye candy to our different flocks. I use my birds for relaxing. Just caring for them, watching them makes for a good end to a day of dealing with people all day. We have two flocks with two boys and there have not been any issues but they were raised together since birth so guess they worked it all out who was in charge.

I have no problem with keeping chickens as pets. They can be great pets, providing you with eggs and some of the more domesticated breeds like Buff Orpingtons being good for young children as they let you pet them. But people who eat chicken, and eat eggs then complain about people “murdering” chickens need to think about what’s in their food. Yes I have chickens and I love the dearly. But if I get an aggressive rooster or my hens are too old to lay, yes I will cull/butcher for the good of my family and flock. I am not going to waste time and money feeding animals that give nothing back .

 

[Mamas_Looney_Farm]

Also back to the point of this post lol, I’ve never really had too much of a problem with roosters. Just simply don’t get a rooster if you can’t

 

[aart]

'Murder' is when a human kills another human....ETA rather than an animal.

 

[Kusanar]

'Murder' is when a human kills another human.

I would define it slightly differently. In that killing a human in self defense, or unintentionally is not murder. I would also say that the people that have serial killer tenancies that torture animals for fun before killing them are murdering them.

I agree that processing an animal for food is not murder, but in my opinion, when the death is simply because you find it fun, that's when it starts crossing the line in my mind.

 

[aart]

I would define it slightly differently. In that killing a human in self defense, or unintentionally is not murder.

I should have been more clear, it's when a human kills a human, rather than killing an animal, especially livestock for food.
The difference reasons human kill humans and the legal charges is beyond the context of this forum/thread.

 

[Peepsi]

Chickens were never meant to be a pet. They provide food and eggs. There is a reason they are FARM ANIMALS and there is a reason petstores don’t sell chickens like they do hamsters. I am an animal lover but killing a chicken is NOT murder. There are chickens here for a reason and that reason is food.

To be fair, most pet stores don't really sell many pets, just pet supplies. For example, hedgehogs are pets, but to get one, you usually have to go through a breeder, because I've never seen a pet store sell a hedgehog. Same with the Bengal cat breed. Never seen one for sale at a pet store. Just because a pet store doesn't sell a certain type of animal pet doesn't mean that the animal is never meant to be a pet. There are plenty of people who have wonderful pet chickens that function in every way as a pet.

I agree with everything else you said though! To me, chickens make super-versatile pets. Sometimes they make tasty ones too!