Wood-chipper slaughter stirs debate

Associated Press via Houston Chronicle ^ | July 6, 2003, 10:52PM | NADA EL SAWY

[Threepwood]

That is funny!

What I would like to know is exactly where someone is supposed to get adaquate experience killing tens of thousands of chickens at once. Did they teach this in high school when I was out back having a smoke? Maybe I should ask Wayne.

"Wayne? Threepwood. Got thirty thousand disease-raddled chickens here, they've all gotta go. Mmm-hmm, and it has to done in a way that is acceptable to weepy idiots unconnected to my industry and livlihood. Thirty-thousand little kevorkian machines? Try harder Wayne."

[Don W]

Tell me: How many of you have actually been around chickens?

Chickens are stupid, mindless and a LOT less than smart. As they entered the chipper, they were probably thinking "I wonder if there's any food in there."

A chipper is probably the fastest, least painful death they could have experienced. Think about it: they get thrown in, and 35 milliseconds later, they're nothing but a puff of feathers (and other stuff) out the discharge chute.

As for the "aerosolized" worries, the workers who were dealing with the stock had most likely already been exposed, and "aerosolized" body parts fall out of suspension rather quickly. I'd lay odds of 400:1 that nothing even potentially dangerous from these birds was extant further than 200 yards from the chipper. And that's with a stiff breeze blowing.

Alarmism. The "Chicken Little" syndrome.

Feh.

[Carry_Okie]

While the case is unusual, animal welfare advocates say it shows that farmers are seldom held responsible when animals are subjected to unnecessary pain and suffering.

Excuse me, but a chipper is a really fast machine. The animal would be so surprised that it would be over before it knew what happened. I can't think of a faster more painless way to get it done in the large volumes these people had to suddenly address. That's probably why the vet recommended it. Since when did you ever hear of a veterenarian who was into animal cruelty?

Go ahead, think about it. How much carbon dioxide would it take to suffocate tens of thousands of chickens? How big a chamber? How long would it take to set up? Do animals suffer packed in a chamber dying of suffocation? You bet. This whole story is a bogus fabrication fed to an urban public so ignorant about the food they eat every day as to have become completely disconnected from reality. It makes them suckers for a hidden agenda.

Most predatory animals eat live animals. That has to be quite stressful to the animal being chased, captured, and eaten. Do the predators eat around this "tainted meat"?

Have you ever watched a cat kill a mouse? They bring them to their kittens still alive in order to build their drive to hunt and kill. It's a hilarious and pretty grusome thing to watch a litter of kittens trying to figure out how to kill something. We gave our cat a beetle the other night and it played with it for over an hour. He munched off a few legs. He dropped it into the dog's water dish. Then he fished it out. We found it on the floor the next morning, sorta dismembered.

Most predatory animals like to play with their half dead victims. It's not at all unusual for them to feast on a living victim!

A "quick and painless" death is an anthropogenic projection of how we would rather go. Nature doesn't care about such things one bit.

This whole business is all about a bunch of thugs feeding off the public's fear of death. If I were Tyson Foods, I'd be shoveling money to PETA in orcder to drive Tyson's domestic competitors out of business. That way Tyson could make a killing out of the chicken farms they're setting up in South America. Of course, there won't be ANY regulation down there, but what do you care if the media don't tell you about it?

[roadcat]

"Would it have been better for them to chop off all their heads and have 30,000 headless chickens running around? (they do run around after their heads are cut off)"

Oh yeah! Shannon Doherty invites her friends over, starts the cameras rolling, and Scare Tactics has their next episode ready for TV!

[Threepwood]

Wellll, I'm very pleased to learn that throwing carcasses into leaf grinders doesn't present a signifigant health concern. Like say, not an expert on the subject. It's not like your Dad sits you down at age 13 and gives you the large scale diseased poultry disposal talk.

All that aside, (and to put it very delicately) if Don W and Threepwood worked at the meat plant on "chicken grinding day", Don W would be taking deep, healthy breaths as he chucked chickens into the hopper by himself. Chickens are dirty little things at the best of times.

[Mike-o-Matic]

   Chickens are typically stunned in an electrified bath before their heads are cut off with a rotating blade.

Did somebody say rotating knives?
(note: link is an ~230k mp3 audio link)

[weegee]

In the previous article I read on this, the guys had talked it over with some sort of official-type-government employee beforehand to be sure it was OK to do. The animal rights activists just got their panties in a wad though after they heard about it.

I posted this because I didn't see the earlier thread when it was posted. I searched for a match and did not find this article.

I saw this in the Houston Comical's national news. I agree about the activists. They seem to be trying to use this issue to open the door to getting their other demands met in Congress.

[weegee]

Maybe they should have been thrown into a vat of molten metal (like Jimmy Hoffa). instant death and no "aerosoled" chicken.

[T'wit]

Correct, I believe, is lethal injection, but only after the chicken has been given a chance to appeal all the way to the supreme court, write a will, smoke one last cigarette and obtain last rites and grief counselling.

[Prodigal Son]

All I know is I wouldn't want to be the guy who has to clean the wood chipper.

Simple. Just throw a few bottles of Mr Clean into the chipper and a few buckets of water ;-)

[WL-law]

These animals had a virus. I'm not sure a wood chipper is the best way to get rid of them. All that areosolized chicken? Not only is that dangerous in terms of germ spread, it must have been right nasty to watch. Blech.

Agreed. Very unhealthy for the persons feeding the animals into the chipper, and putting the virus airborne too, which could spread it to other animals in the vicinity.

[drlevy88]

Chipped chicken, mmm-mmm good.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

The reason why China is such an incubator for new flu strains is the close proximity between humans, fowl and swine, making interspecies jumping strains more likely to connect. That many chickens and that much blood and biomass turned aerosol was a disaster waiting to happen.

[Aquinasfan]

Do any of these people care about the pain caused to the unborn baby when the child is killed?

No. Any other questions?

[Lee'sGhost]

What I like about this story is the irony. The people that are up in arms about the chickens being thrown into the chippers are the same people who abhor the US intervention in Iraq -- where Sadaam and his sons regularly threw PEOPLE into the wood chippers.

[Bluntpoint]

Nothing beats a Chicken "Squishee" form Abu's corner Quickee Mart.

[Bluntpoint]

"Chickens are stupid, mindless and a LOT less than smart."

Generally speaking, it is the more stupid animals who make it to the dining table.

The smart ones get their attorneys to plea them out of such a meal.

[Manic_Episode]

R-R-R-r-r-R-R-R-r-r-R-R-R(((BA-GAWWK!)))K-K-K-K-CH-K-K-K-CH-K-K-K(((FLOOOOF)))R-R-R-r-r-r-R-R-R-r-r-r

[pttttt]

The owners of a Southern California egg farm insist they did nothing wrong when they slaughtered 30,000 chickens, quarantined because of a virus, by throwing them into wood chippers.

Is this the "chipper chicken"? (Father of the Bride, wedding planner Franck quote)

[Coleus]

And don't they taste ever soooooo good. I had shredded beef last night myself...tasted great!