Zombie Chickens!

[Opusnone]

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061122/NEWS/611220399&SearchID=73263753603020

"When Jim Stauffer of Petaluma saw a chicken crawling out of a mound of compost like the living dead, he knew something had changed at the egg farm next door.

"We called them zombie chickens," Stauffer said. "Some of them crawled right up out of the ground. They'd get out and stagger around."

What changed was the method used to get rid of "spent hens," which are chickens that no longer produce eggs. And the change isn't just in Petaluma; it's throughout the country.

The market for spent-hen meat has collapsed. Since May, there isn't a California facility willing to take them.

That means finding a way to dispose of more than a half-million spent hens a year - and that's just in the Sonoma County area, mostly around Petaluma, where chickens and eggs have been an agricultural staple for a century.

As a last resort, many farmers have turned to killing the chickens and using them to make piles of compost.

Hens are placed in a sealed box which is filled with carbon monoxide. Within seconds the chickens are unconscious. Less than two minutes later, they die from lack of oxygen.

Farmers say the method for euthanizing and composting the chickens is humane and health officials say they have heard no complaints.

The dead chickens are layered into a mound of sawdust. In about a month, it turns into compost, farmers said.

They said the incident described by Stauffer, in which about two dozen chickens crawled out of compost piles, was an anomaly probably caused by inexperience."

[LWolf]

1. That is just sick.

It's also a waste. Of course, I object to factory farming/meat production at any and every level, anyway.

I have a flock of chickens. I don't kill them all every year and replace them with young stock that will lay more. I allow my broody hen to raise a brood each year. Eat the cockerels, leave the hens or sell them, so that I have all ages in my flock. When an aged bird, too old to be palatable, dies of old age, it's given a burial or offered up to the coyotes.

Hens beyond a year aren't "spent." They just don't lay as many eggs. I left an old hen behind with a friend when I moved a couple of years ago. She's about 9, still laying 2 or 3 eggs a week.

My chickens free range over 5 acres, and return to the coop to roost each night. The hens lay their eggs in the nests provided, and keep several families supplied. When it's time to dispatch a bird, I simply pick it up when it is sleeping on the roost, and do the deed quickly and cleanly. No suffering, no stress, no poisonous gas, no problem.

[mcg]

5. An informative video about the poultry industry

disturbing to watch, but informative...

http://www.mercyforanimals.org/kfc-review-oct-2-2006.asp

The Humane Farming Association

"The take-over of agriculture in the U.S. by large corporations has allowed a larger number of animals to be produced more quickly and for less money. Agribusiness has reaped great profits while keeping consumer prices low. But the real costs of factory farming – in terms of the loss of family farms, food-borne illness, damage to the environment, and animal suffering – have been tremendous."

http://www.hfa.org/about/index.html

Factory farms are an abomination.

[alfredo]

2. foxes and weasels took care of our "slow" chickens.

[Minnesota_Lib]

3. ACK!!! Poultrygeist!!!

In fact, there is a low (and I mean veeeeery low) budget movie being made about the problem of zombie chickens.


http://www.poultrygeistmovie.com/movie/teaser/




.

[LARED]

4. Wow, I can't wait for the real thing to hit the big screen (n/t)

[MoseyWalker]

6. holy god damned disgusting crap

this one wins the prize for most disgusting screwed up crap I have read yet this year.