Irish Battery Hen Cull

Graces7

It concerns me deeply that these issues are seen in isolation, and that accusations are implied also against me. eg ten cents on eggs! WHich is not true where we live.

Surely any realistic view has to be seen in the context of the country it is happening in? Especially in recession.

I am rarely on boards for many reasons. Last night I came here from the state benefits and accommodation boards and we are heartsick at what is happening after the last budget.

Read what Vincent de paul is facing now?

This is Ireland.

So reading what were attacks on my views went down badly as the posts re ten cents on eggs does as it simply is not true where we live.

A new scale of rent allowance was sneaked in which means that many now risk losing this and thus being made homeless. It has already started. See those boards. Evictions are on the cards as landlords rebel. The scenario has appalling possibilities.

We wil be safe as we are in an area not badly affected, but this measure is adding to the stress on families. We have family working with the homeless and we send every cent we can to help that work. Other factors; many children here now are arriving at school with no breakfast.

The mothers I talk with are deeply worried about their families; ie it is children not chickens at risk here. People not poultry. And at the other end of the scale, malnutrition among the elderly is endemic as pensions fall and costs of food rise. Tea and toast.

Jobs are scarcer than ever now also and many are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table, as indeed we are.

So to read some of these posts is reminiscent of Marie Antoinette suggesting the starving eat cake.

These issues cannot be taken in isolation, especially not from overseas using one example to ridicule any opposition.

This is why I tend to get hot under the collar. And if that causes offence, tough! Sorry but children matter more than chickens. They need good food to build bodies and bones and teeth and a sturdy health; they are Ireland's future.

So please, transfer some of this idealism to them?

Anyone on welfare through no fault of theirs really is in deep water. We will be fine as we hark back to the last war and we are old and need less.

But we live close ot the bone; one month we had literally three cents left in the bank after paying the rent.

The only cheap source of first class protein is chicken; the only way as things stand to produce enough and keep it cheap is intensive farming. Which also provides of course jobs.

We do better here than other countries. last week someone posted on a yahoo group we use a youtube video.. cannot take the time to quote it but if you google trappists peta you will see the horrors in the US. It emerged that PETA had doctored the video ie rigged it. Their ideas on chickens is that they should be totally free, to raise their families. We kept hens free range many years and there was always the issue of what to do with the excess cockerels who would soon kill each other. I could not bear to have them killed so would release them in woodlands..

These are hard times here and we need to keep a sturdy realism and compassion for people above and alongside caring for critters.

We trade at markets to raise money for the homeless so we are in touch with prices of organic and free range . Where chickens are involved, this is often three times the cost of deep litter hens.

We have old age health issues which limits what we can eat and chicken is one such. Even that is at most twice a week.
And we share it with the dogs and cats of course.

Omitted to express delight at the images of rescued hens; we did that many years ago and it was a joy indeed. BRAVO! Wonderful and I had tears in my eyes.

Maybe we have a different perspective but that should be fine too? But this really is not the time to use what is coming across as some form of emotional blackmail.
Which is often self defeating as it polarises people; it certainly does me!!!!!!

And I used to be over-idealistic too before hardship made me face reality and see difficult sense.

And as I say repeatedly, the only way forward is by legislation. And that has to come from within Ireland. As we did with fur farming successfully. <snip>

star-pants

Graces7 Please read the forum charter, discussion of PETA or other similar groups is not allowed. Also please keep your posts from going 'off topic'.

Cherry Blossom

The title of the forum is Animals and Pets! As said there are cheaper ways to live that eating any form of chicken.

Discussion of militant animal rights groups is against the forum charter - and that's your second attempt at accusing another poster of being a member of one - that gets you a 2 week ban.

wildlifeboy

<snip>

Cherry Blossom

wildlifeboy wrote: »

<snip>

I suggest you ask your question in an appropriate forum - try Smallholdings or food and drink, not animals & pets.

wildlifeboy

my question was directly related to the topic.. I want to keep rehomed battery hens for egg laying purposes

trekie123

genie wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/ten-farmers-forced-to-cull-thousands-of-battery-hens-2976187.html

Are there no organisation(s) in Ireland like the BHWT or Lucky Hens who re-home ex-battery hens? I'd love to think that some of these poor hens could be saved.

Rescuing battery hens are not as easy to rescue as you would think. I have been trying to get a few for months now but they are hard to come by. I could get hens no problem from other sources but i want to get some from the battery farms.
Actually its an excuse to relive my childhood. When i was about 10 i lived near a chicken processing factory. My buddy had a labrador and it went into a ditch and came out with a squawking bald chicken. I brought it home, made a coop for it and a few weeks later it developed into the most beautiful white chicken that laid eggs every day, caught mice, chased cats and fought the dog for his dinner.
For anyone who has never kept chickens i think the best way to describe having them wander around your garden is a bit like sitting at a fire and being entranced by the flames. Sitting in your garden with a drink watching these birds clucking away as they search for something to eat is a lot like that.

anniehoo

trekie123 wrote: »

For anyone who has never kept chickens i think the best way to describe having them wander around your garden is a bit like sitting at a fire and being entranced by the flames. Sitting in your garden with a drink watching these birds clucking away as they search for something to eat is a lot like that.

Fantastic description trekie

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