OT: Zombie Chicken sightings in Petaluma, CA!

[gunug]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/16156469.htm :

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PETALUMA (AP) - In this rich agricultural region of Northern California, ranchers have been turning chickens too old to lay eggs into compost at a rate of a half-million hens a year.

But some chickens not properly euthanized have been seen crawling out of the compost piles, earning them the name ``zombie chickens'' -- and hatching a debate over what else might be done with them and other ``spent hens.''

I don't feel all that warm and fuzzy about these chickens but I don't feel it is right to be unavoidably cruel to any living things!  Something to think about along with Frances' story about the mistreatment of the horse.  I'm not a member of PETA but I feel that we need to be a little more proactive against this kind of thing!

[Gregg]

More in line with your topic title than your post....

Recently, several people have reported seeing a creature that looks like a cross between a wolf and a bear in the area around Holy Hill. (That's the site of a well known church a little north and west of Milwaukee.) There are at least two pretty big guys who were scared out of their wits after a sighting. They aren't calling it "Big Foot" (the name of a town in Illinois just across our border, by the way) but it kinda has some similarities.

[Xairbusdriver]

gunug, should I tell you how my Grandmother 'prepared' a chicken before sticking it in boiling water to help with plucking its feathers? "Euthanize" hadn't even been invented back then, of course...

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...hatching a debate over...

So, these "Zombies" were still capable of 'hatching', also!

[Gregg]

Lemme guess:

"Chickie, this is gonna hurt you more than it hurts me."

[gunug]

I would think that a quick stroke with an axe would qualify as euthanization!  Not what I'd do to grandma but okay for a chicken!  I know that "sometimes" they run around after their head is cut off but I don't think they're capable of much suffering after that. I think being buried alive is an issue; and why isn't someone processing them for food instead of "dumping" them!

[Xairbusdriver]

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why isn't someone processing them for food

I may be wrong, but most 'older' chicks are somewhat tough, even with all the chemicals used to make the meat white and tender. And the 'egg farms' are probably not set up with the modern equipment to handle the processing of whole birds. Two different businesses, equipment and food requirements.

And my Grandma used no sharp objects in her 'euthanasia' of the hen. Those things are dangerous! And sharp objects are too!