Chicken Out

[peanut12]

Hi guys, as red blooded football fans I realise I might be flogging a dead horse, but I'm sure as Southend fans we are all well aware of the issues of cruelty.:p

I keep chickens myself and am signed up to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls Chicken Out campaign (you may have seen the progs on tv).

Our chickens are kept as pets for fresh free range eggs (which are better than anything you get in the supermarket by the way) but we only eat Free range chicken too due the appalling conditions Battery and broiler house birds are kept in:
231/2 hours of light per day - 1/2 rest
231/2 hours intensive feeding to make the weight
Excessive growth causing inbalance and injury
Injured or smaller birds are culled on the spot
Life span 39 days - never see daylight
No quality of life or space
Live and sit in their own faeces and urine causing hock burns

all this leads to a chicken for £2.50 when a free range bird will cost rom only £3.00. Generally too, many families waste a large amount of the chicken they buy.

Most battery and broiler chickens have a space the size of an A4 sheet of paper to live in.:(

If you support the campaign for Free Range chicken and Eggs click on the link below and sign up.

www.chickenout.tv

and if you're not sure click on this link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpbtBgLfl90&feature=related

Please support CHICKEN OUT - make the moral choice - it'll cost you 50p and no-one's gonna stop you in the street with a clipboard.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Completely and utterly agree Peanut.... preaching to the converted here.

 

[peanut12]

knew I could rely on you MK - just enjoyed the best fried egg sandwich in the world!

 

[MK Shrimper]

knew I could rely on you MK - just enjoyed the best fried egg sandwich in the world!

:) I enjoy my food to much to buy, cook and eat crap....and these birds deserve a decent life.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Have done so, firmly behind this campaign, didn't need to see the latest round of tv progs because I'd seen one about 5 years ago, and from that point have always only bought free range.

 

[canveyshrimper]

Having watched Hugh's Chicken Run you have my full agreement Peanut. I rarely eat eggs (diet) but do eat lots of chicken and will only buy free range.

However, and with no support of our food industry many people live on very tight budgets and quite simply aren't able to afford the extra cash to buy free range.

IMO the chicken production industry in this country needs a massive shake up, and although this will sound perverse they may well need a BSE type scare to actually achieve this.

 

[Firestorm]

Surely it is crueller to keep and animal happy then kill it , than it is to keep it miserable then kill it.
In the first instance you have terminated a happy and enjoyable life whereas battery farmers are doing the animal a favour but cutting short its misery (which it knows no better anyway)...Discuss

Battery Farming - the animal is pleased to die (That sounds like an advertising slogan to me)

 

[cockles is back]

Surely it is crueller to keep and animal happy then kill it , than it is to keep it miserable then kill it.
In the first instance you have terminated a happy and enjoyable life whereas battery farmers are doing the animal a favour but cutting short its misery (which it knows no better anyway)...Discuss

Battery Farming - the animal is pleased to die (That sounds like an advertising slogan to me)

thats amused me......

 

[J]

Hi guys, as red blooded football fans I realise I might be flogging a dead horse, but I'm sure as Southend fans we are all well aware of the issues of cruelty.:p

I keep chickens myself and am signed up to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls Chicken Out campaign (you may have seen the progs on tv).

Our chickens are kept as pets for fresh free range eggs (which are better than anything you get in the supermarket by the way) but we only eat Free range chicken too due the appalling conditions Battery and broiler house birds are kept in:
231/2 hours of light per day - 1/2 rest
231/2 hours intensive feeding to make the weight
Excessive growth causing inbalance and injury
Injured or smaller birds are culled on the spot
Life span 39 days - never see daylight
No quality of life or space
Live and sit in their own faeces and urine causing hock burns

all this leads to a chicken for £2.50 when a free range bird will cost rom only £3.00. Generally too, many families waste a large amount of the chicken they buy.

Most battery and broiler chickens have a space the size of an A4 sheet of paper to live in.:(

If you support the campaign for Free Range chicken and Eggs click on the link below and sign up.

www.chickenout.tv

and if you're not sure click on this link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpbtBgLfl90&feature=related

Please support CHICKEN OUT - make the moral choice - it'll cost you 50p and no-one's gonna stop you in the street with a clipboard.

Although i do agree with you..

they only end up one way to be honest..

 

[MK Shrimper]

I think we have a duty to keep animals in the best conditions if we're going to consume them. Having a sentient creature having to pumped full of steroids (which, remember, you'll be eating in your KFC) and living amongst it's own p1ss and **** in total darkness to me, is just wrong.

Besides, organic chickens that are not pumped full of chemicals, taste FAR far better.

 

[J]

I think we have a duty to keep animals in the best conditions if we're going to consume them. Having a sentient creature having to pumped full of steroids (which, remember, you'll be eating in your KFC) and living amongst it's own p1ss and **** in total darkness to me, is just wrong.

Besides, organic chickens that are not pumped full of chemicals, taste FAR far better.

Hate to say it... i agree with your post!

 

[davewebbsbrain]

I do not particularly agree with Battery hens, BUT, if a chicken is born into that state, it will never know any different and think that it is the normal way of life anyway!!

 

[MK Shrimper]

Hate to say it... i agree with your post!

Good man :)

 

[Pubey]

I'm yet to see the difference between a 'normal' chicken and a free range chicken to be only 50p... the difference seems to be larger, and hence why people do tend to buy normal chickens. The supermarkets have worked a miracle in converting many people from buying food based on freshness, taste, quality and seasonality... into just buying products based on price. This has meant that many (not all) will just buy the cheapest chicken as they don't have an understanding of the difference in quality, taste and also the welfare of the chicken before it ended up on your plate. I praise HFW for his programmes and his campaign, it is for a good reason and I have since bought free-range (although I'm yet to taste any difference... it could just be my cooking!). However, and I know he worked hard not to do this, he does still sound rather patronising and trite with his comments to lower-income families, where the difference in price is a significant one. He went to Eton and is extremely well off, this shouldn't be an issue but in this cynical world unfortunately it is. Basically if you start telling lower-income families and consumers what to spend their money on then you are on thin ice. His campaign doesn't seem to have done much to target the bulk users of 'cheap' chicken... it's the takeaways, restaurants and processed chicken manufacturers who really need targeting in my opinion as they really have the ability to aid the welfare of chickens, we need to convert the demand from battery to free-range chickens, and everyone (including farmers) will be better off. Finally there also needs to be pressure put on the government to introduce stricter controls to protect the welfare of animals.

 

[peanut12]

ASDA do free range birds from £3 and Tesco's 2 for £5 on value birds so there's your 50p.

As for the taste, there is a notable difference in the eggs, let alone the chicken.

I understand some people have tight budgets, all HFW is asking is that you make the most of 1 free range bird rather than buying two value ones and throwing half of each bird away by not eating all the meat from the carcass and by using the bones to make stock with some veg for another tantalising meal.

 

[sufcintheprem]

Exactly the point I was about to make Pubey. I would say it tends to be more like double the price. To be honest, the difference in taste would have to be far better than it is currently to make me want to pay a significant mark-up.

I can't help but feel that organic farmers are too detached from market dynamics on price as an upshot from the comfort with which they can sell organic food. I haven't made my mind up on battery farming of chickens but suspect I will be against it. Regardless, there has to be a middle ground between the methods and therefore the prices.

It's a bit absurd when free-range farmers are seen as knights in shining armour when they are not subject to the same harsh economic conditions as most of the agriculture in this country.

 

[Pubey]

ASDA do free range birds from £3 and Tesco's 2 for £5 on value birds so there's your 50p.

As for the taste, there is a notable difference in the eggs, let alone the chicken.

I understand some people have tight budgets, all HFW is asking is that you make the most of 1 free range bird rather than buying two value ones and throwing half of each bird away by not eating all the meat from the carcass and by using the bones to make stock with some veg for another tantalising meal.

that's fair enough but unfortunately I, like many people, tend to shop in one supermarket or area... I couldn't tell you where my nearest Asda is up here, and so I have to head to tescos as it's near by, where the difference in price is a bit more significant

 

[MK Shrimper]

Find farmers markets - they're pretty much everywhere these days and your money goes straight into the pockets of the farmers themselves.

 

[Firestorm]

Find farmers markets - they're pretty much everywhere these days and your money goes straight into the pockets of the farmers themselves.

So they can go off hunting.......

Did anyone see the Mirror this morning ?
The Queen (patron of the RSPB) on RSPB Day pictured holding up a recently hunted Pheasant

****ing hypocrites.....

 

[Mr. Benedict]

Don't really care to be honest. Chicken is chicken.