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Karen Davis's letter appears in the October 2002 issue of Harper's
Magazine, pp. 8-9. It responds to an informative article in the June
issue about a farmer who worked for Tyson, describing, for example,
how, when the chickens are sent to slaughter, the workers "clean up
the house": "In each house several hundred were left, those too small
or too crippled to meet the Tyson specs. [A worker] immobilized them
anyway he could-snapping their necks, stomping on them-to clean out
the house for the next shipment of dandelion-puff chicks." The farmer
rescued a chicken, whom she called Boots.
Harper's Magazine
Letters@harpers.org
"Chicken 81" (Readings, June) provides an interesting look at chicken
farming attitudes and behavior on the small-scale and the large
scale. For a minute I thought that Sarah L. Courteau might let the
chickens have the last word for a change, but no, the ax-swinging
mother wins, and the sexually charged cockerel, Boots, dies. There's
a missing piece of information to this ending.
In nature, the polygamous behavior of roosters is not a problem.
Under the thumb of humans, however, birds used in meat production
grow three to four times faster and larger than normal birds, and
those used for breeding become sexually active, though not mature, at
half the age of normal chickens-at three months old instead of six.
Essentially, the males and females alike are huge baby birds with
dysfunctional metabolisms, fragile skeletons, easily torn skin, and
the sex hormones of adult birds overwhelming the psyches of
pre-adolescents. They are frequently in a great deal of orthopedic
pain. If Boots had lived much longer he would have died of congestive
heart failure or ascites, most likely after having lost his ability
to walk. I've witnessed it a thousand times. The point is, it wasn't
his fault that he was so destructive to the hens, and giving him the
ax was nothing to crow about. He was already ruined.
Karen Davis, PhD
President
United Poultry Concerns, Inc.
Machipongo, Va.
United Poultry Concerns, Inc.
PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405-0150
757-678-7875
FAX: 757-678-5070
www.upc-online.org
(UPC Letter in Oct 2002 Harper's Magazine)
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