From battery to bold, from frustration to free will
I’ve surprised myself by how easily I’ve got into the habit of waking up around 6am every single morning to open up the chicken coop and let the ladies out into their run for breakfast (okay, truth is, they rarely stop eating from the moment they emerge). They have to be put to bed at sunset every evening. Actually they go to bed themselves as soon as the light has faded somewhat, but the door needs to be closed to keep out draughts and cut off one potentially easy entry point for predators. They are enormously entertaining both when they get up and when they go to sleep.
tags: animal cruelty, battery hens, chickens, compassion in world farming, eggs, free range, intensive farmingClever chickens as a cultural meme?
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.
tags: animal cruelty, animal testing, carnivores, chickens, compassion in world farming, herbivores, intensive farming, memes, omnivores
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