I need to get a little something off my chest. I am in some chicken FB groups and whilst I don’t actively participate in them much, I see a few posts from time to time. I am increasingly aware of how many people seem to treat chicks like toys or raising them as some sort of science experiment. Is it just me who is upset by this?
I am a practical, realistic sort of person and I completely understand that people raise chickens for various different reasons and care for them differently. Some people have chickens for meat or for eggs for their families, some for more commercial purposes and some have them as beloved pets. I am totally fine with this but I just find it completely bizarre when people treat raising chickens as an opportunity to test out weird things or to put them in odd situations because it’s cute. I feel like the world is a better place for many animals in many ways but it’s also worse in some ways too. My grandad was a farmer and kept chickens and his were raised by their mother hens and scratched in the dirt, not true for so many now.
This thread was inspired by a post I’ve just seen from a lady who has given a fertilised hen’s egg to her parrot to raise. The post I saw was covered with comments along the lines of “omg this is so cute” to “can’t wait to see how this goes” or “they’ll be so confused in a few weeks lol”. How is this acceptable? There is no reason to do this except as a sort of experiment or because they think it’s cute? But to me it shows a complete lack of respect for the welfare of both birds and I find the number of people in support of it quite frightening.
I don’t make this post to single anybody out or as an attack on people who I’m sure do things with the best intentions in many cases, but I would love for people to remember that they are dealing with a living, breathing creature. Whether or not you see them as a pet or a source of food, surely they deserve some respect! Argh!
I am a practical, realistic sort of person and I completely understand that people raise chickens for various different reasons and care for them differently. Some people have chickens for meat or for eggs for their families, some for more commercial purposes and some have them as beloved pets. I am totally fine with this but I just find it completely bizarre when people treat raising chickens as an opportunity to test out weird things or to put them in odd situations because it’s cute. I feel like the world is a better place for many animals in many ways but it’s also worse in some ways too. My grandad was a farmer and kept chickens and his were raised by their mother hens and scratched in the dirt, not true for so many now.
This thread was inspired by a post I’ve just seen from a lady who has given a fertilised hen’s egg to her parrot to raise. The post I saw was covered with comments along the lines of “omg this is so cute” to “can’t wait to see how this goes” or “they’ll be so confused in a few weeks lol”. How is this acceptable? There is no reason to do this except as a sort of experiment or because they think it’s cute? But to me it shows a complete lack of respect for the welfare of both birds and I find the number of people in support of it quite frightening.
I don’t make this post to single anybody out or as an attack on people who I’m sure do things with the best intentions in many cases, but I would love for people to remember that they are dealing with a living, breathing creature. Whether or not you see them as a pet or a source of food, surely they deserve some respect! Argh!
