Clever chickens as a cultural meme?


First day free-range!

What’s going on? Chickens are everywhere at the moment. When there isn’t a programme specifically dedicated to the plight of broiler or battery hens on TV, there’s a newspaper article commenting on the boom in popularity of keeping chickens in urban gardens, a magazine hitting the newstands with chickens on the cover, a comedy series featuring a rooster that saves two people from a burning building by crowing them awake, and—last but not least—a radio programme all about animal intelligence featuring, of course, I should have guessed, chickens.

I swear, since we got our ex-battery hens three weeks ago today, my beloved and I have been seeing these birds everywhere. And no, we’re not hallucinating. Everybody is talking about chickens! I am sure the chicken has never before enjoyed such a high-profile media focus.

I want to reference the radio show right now. It was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 yesterday early evening, I can’t remember the title but it was all about animal intelligence, co-operative behaviours and comprehension of language. The programme was not only topical because of the surge in popularity of chickens as pets, but also because the story emerged this week of a dolphin named Moko, who saved the lives of two whales by leading them to safety when they had become stranded off a beach in New Zealand.

Read the full article.

Saturday, March 15th, 2008

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