Just so you know...this is a totally LEFTY paper from my neck of the woods. I wouldn’t believe 99.99% of the “horrors” they’re printing. And they like to make stuff up too, to sensationalize their stories.
Raising animals for food isn’t pretty. It’s hard work and it involves a lot of sh*t, LOL!
People do worse to one another day in and day out. Look at a Police Blotter if you can. Don’t anthropormophize animals and equate them with humans. They’re not the same by a long shot.
Don’t like meat? Don’t eat it. Upset at how eggs are produced in large quantities? Don’t eat them. But keep in mind that those of us that DO raise our own livestock can NEVER forget the bottom line when it comes to making food affordable for others. Our profit margins are very small. On average, you’re (people) consuming over 200 eggs a year. Can you produce a dozen eggs for 39 cents? Nope. Didn’t think so!
If a few male chicks need to be disposed of, so be it. What’s the difference if they step on their heads, versus shredding them within mili-seconds? Both are actually “humane.” They never know what hit them. Pulling them limb-from-limb or letting the Barn Cat torture them to death? Now THAT would be “inhumane,” IMHO.
When I get the odd, “useless feeder” Rooster in with a new batch of laying hen chicks it’s obvious he’s going to produce nothing, unless I’m keeping him for breeding purposes. So, I raise him up for a few months and then butcher him, versus killing him as a chick. I may as well cut my losses that way and provide a delicious dinner for my family, versus feeding a bird that produces nothing until he dies of Old Age, but eats (literally) into my profits in the long run.
I will admit I do have ONE Rooster, and he’s a terrific “watch dog.” He takes very good care of “his” Girls.
Other than that, they’re useless to me. That’s just a fact of Farm Life. Another fact? Hens will lay an egg every 72 hours whether they’ve been “fertilized” by a Rooster or not. So, Roosters truly ARE useless in the scheme of things as far as egg production goes unless, again, you’re doing your own breeding. :)
And if you read this article carefully...these dopes aren’t concerned with Roosters, either! All of the hippies in ‘The People’s Republik of Madistan’ want laying HENS. The city doesn’t allow Roosters anyway because they’ll wake the Yuppies up at 4am with their crowing...so why all the tears from the author over a few male chicks...that the hippies in Madistan don’t want, anyway?
They just want to be “Cool” and “Hip” and “With It” because they can raise FOUR WHOLE HENS all by them widdow selves, LOL! And guess what? When they don’t want them anymore, they drive to the outskirts where I live and just drop theses “pets” off to fend for themselves. Now how’s THAT for humane treatment? ;)
(Same with cats and dogs and pet rabbits...we’ve had them all show up at our farm, unannounced.)
I could not agree with you more. My Dad and family raise chickens. Broilers. I would like to see these fools do the work they do. Walk through 12 chicken houses a day picking up dead chickens for just one thing. Chickens are less humane to other chickens. My Dad would cull the cripples when they were just babies. Either by waking their head aganist a two by four or stomping their head. Watched it as a child. Did me no harm. These kind of people really do get on my last nerve.