I’ll bet Campbell’s Soup will give them all a home.
The honest-to-goodness truth of the matter is that the Chicken industry is nothing like it was just 20 years ago. 20 years ago, the breed of chicken we use for meat didn’t exist. Did you know that the chicken in your freezer went from hatching to slaughter in just 58 days. It has been designed to grow so fast, that it can barely walk, it has very few feathers, and is primarily breast meat.
The hens used for laying eggs are typically killed, and buried. Yup, buried - as is disposed of. Why? Because, like any industry, it’s designed to run millions of a particularily sized bird -and these old hens are simply too big for the machines.
That’s why your chicken is practically tasteless, and why you find every whole chicken within a pound of each other. You don’t find the ‘big birds’ anymore.
Now, don’t get me wrong - there is nothign wrong with butchering up an old laying hen; I’m sure they are quite tasty. But, the fact of the matter is that a vast majority of these hens wind up in a landfill - and not on a plate.
Gee whiz...I’m looking to start keeping some laying hens in the backyard. I could use some free livestock. Not going to Californewchickens though.
If I had the space, I would take a few.
I would love to have fresh eggs everyday.
In other news:
http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/05/obama-end-funding-for-snowflake-embryo-adoption-program/
Obama: End Funding for Snowflake Embryo Adoption Program
by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 3/5/12 12:46 PM
President Barack Obama is seeking to end federal funding for a pro-life program installed during the administration of President George W. Bush that helped save unborn babies potentially slated for destruction in fertility clinics.
The “snowflake baby” program provided funding for adoption-awareness programs for the children who were formerly stored human embryos at fertility clinics who could have been destroyed for scientific research.
Congressman Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, was one of the strong proponents of the pro-life program, saying, “Assertions that leftover embryos are better off dead so that their stem cells can be derived is dehumanizing and cheapens human life. There is no such thing as leftover human life. Ask the snowflake children— cryogenically frozen embryos who were adopted—their lives are precious and priceless.”
The Obama administration proposes to defund the Embryo Adoption Awareness Campaign in its fiscal 2013 budget. As the Washington Times reports, “The Department of Health and Human Services “is not requesting funds for this program” because “the Embryo Adoption program will be discontinued in FY2013,” HHS officials said in a February funding report to Congress.”
Ron Stoddart, executive director of Nightlight Christian Adoptions, one of the top embryo adoption programs, told the newspaper he is disappointed with the decision, saying, “I think that daily we talk to people about … embryo donation and adoption, and we hear the response, ‘Really? I didn’t know that was even possible.’”
Mailee Smith, staff counsel at Americans United for Life, told the newspaper the decision is more evidence of “the pro-abortion slant of this administration.”
“Why would the Obama administration cut $2 million for adoption awareness, but keep $1 million a day for Planned Parenthood?” she said.
But the Obama administration claims there is “little interest” in the program.
Under one of the grants the program gave out, Bethany Christian Services, the largest adoption agency in the United States, partnered with the NEDC to provide a national forum for emerging issues related to embryo adoption and donation.
Jeffrey Keenan, MD, medical director for the National Embryo Donation Center, said the grants will also help his organization create a national clearinghouse for literature, media and electronic data currently available on embryo adoption and donation.
“We are pleased with the exciting work previous grants have allowed us to accomplish in increasing awareness about this important option for infertile couples, and we look forward to maintaining our leadership in this field,” Keenan said.
President Bush stood with the families of several babies who were born after embryo adoption when he vetoed a Congressional bill forcing taxpayers to pay for destructive embryonic stem cell research.
Known as “snowflake children” — each child is unique, like a snowflake — these babies adopted as human embryos are now healthy children no different from their peers.
“These families highlight the essential fact that human embryos are human beings deserving the full love and protections granted any child,” said Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.
“We hear so often in the debate over embryonic stem cells that the harvesting of stem cells from embryos does not destroy a human life, and yet these Snowflake children prove otherwise,” Perkins explained.
There are an estimated 400,000 frozen human embryos in fertility clinics across the country. A study in September 2004 by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers University indicates that 84 percent of clinics throw out “extra” embryos created during in in-vitro procedures.
The study showed that 76 percent of clinics offered the adoption option; 60 percent, disposal of the embryos before freezing; 54 percent, disposal after freezing; 60 percent, donation for scientific experimentation; and 19 percent, donation for training doctors.
Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) says the Nightlight Christian Adoptions program is a way to “take these little children and give them the potential to live the rest of their lives as the gifts from God that they are.”
Paging Jeremiah Wright...Obama’s chickens coming home to roost.
from Wikipedia (excerpt):
Mike the Headless Chicken
(April 1945 – March 1947), also known as Miracle Mike,[1] was a Wyandotte chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been mostly cut off. Thought by many to be a hoax, the bird's owner took him to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City to establish the facts of the story.[1]
Beheading
On September 10, 1945, farmer Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorado, United States, had his mother-in-law around for supper and was sent out to the yard by his wife to bring back a chicken. Olsen chose a five-and-a-half-month-old cockerel named Mike. The axe missed the jugular vein, leaving one ear and most of the brain stem intact.[2][3]
Despite Olsen's botched handiwork, Mike was still able to balance on a perch and walk clumsily; he even attempted to preen and crow, although he could do neither. After the bird did not die, a surprised Mr. Olsen decided to continue to care permanently for Mike, feeding him a mixture of milk and water via an eyedropper; he was also fed small grains of corn.
When used to his new and unusual center of mass, Mike could easily get himself to the highest perches without falling. His crowing, though, was less impressive and consisted of a gurgling sound made in his throat, leaving him unable to crow at dawn. Mike also spent his time preening and attempting to peck for food with his neck.[2]