Whether we are nice to animals or not, or whether they are nice to us or not, is irrelevant.
What matters is how animals treat each other.
...
Chickens do not ... treat each other ... well.
.
For that matter, most animals don’t. The best they can do is treat their own kind well. To them, that which is not their kind is either prey, predator, or something to be ignored or avoided.
Some animals rise to the level of social animals, but few can be said to have any kind of ethics, or measures of behavior that could be considered “sinful”, or “not sinful”.
There are behaviors that promote survival, and behaviors that reduce it. There is no good beyond survival, and no bad beyond being wasteful of resources.
Especially the poor shlub that is at the bottom of the pecking order. They often have a large percentage of their feathers pecked off of them by the rest of the flock. My grandparents had to 'harvest' the poor unfortunate in that position often thus moving the second to last into last place. Sometimes that particular bird had enough, um, balls - a quality lacking in House Republicans - to mount a sufficient defense to avoid being denuded. If not, they ended on the table also a little later.
On a practical note, a henpecked hen doesn't lay many eggs so it is best suited for the frying pan or stew pot.
In the end, no mater the status in the pecking order, they all tasted just as good..
On the plate.
Next to the mashed potatoes.
With chicken gravy. ;-)
Full agreement Bob. Most chickens push the other chickens 'forward', to the alligators, thinking they will be eaten last. Reminds me of media people.