Scary Rubber Chicken Fingers
07 Mar '05
Posted by: ryan in: Corporate Interests, Ethics/Animal Rights
If there was ever any doubt that the mass production of animals for food is just out of hand, witness the Bright Coop E-Z Catch Chicken Harvester, a scary ass looking machine that scoops up groups of birds with its foot-long rubber fingers (insert joke here) and sends them flying into cages in the back of a truck.
Be sure to watch the video.
It’s probably more humane than workers grabbing the chickens by their necks and throwing them, but look at those birds, man, they’re freaking out. Sadly, with the number of chickens required for food (meat or eggs), there’s no other way to deal with that many chickens than automating the process with scary rubber fingers.
In their lifetime, the average American eats (or eats the eggs of) 2,700 chickens (versus 10 cows or calves). Perhaps we should cut back on the chicken and egg consumption a bit?
(via)
4 Responses
aardvarknav
08|Mar|2005 1You obviously never grew up on a farm. Even with a small chicken house and pen where the chickens foraged free range style, you might easily catch one chicken. Even relatively tame chickens will squawk and flap their wings. Then it became a mass frenzy with the other chickens (nature takes over when they sense a problem) and you had to chase down any other chickens you wanted. Can you imagine even today’s large free range chicken producers trying to catch chickens by hand. You’d end up terribly fit and frustrated with a limited production cycle or the chickens would become even more expensive. Not all machinery is created by the devil. Chicken producers are wise enough to know that if they damage the product during the growth and production cycle the value of their product goes down tremendously.
Ryan
08|Mar|2005 2You obviously never grew up on a farm.
No, but I volunteer on one now.
Even relatively tame chickens will squawk and flap their wings.
Actually, all of the chickens I’ve handled don’t mind being picked up. Then again, when I’m picking them up, I’m not sending them to have their throats slit while still conscious, either.
Can you imagine even today’s large free range chicken producers trying to catch chickens by hand.
No, and that’s my point. We produce and eat so many chickens (and chicken by-products) that we need machinery like this to keep it up.
Not all machinery is created by the devil.
I know. I love my food processor. It does a great job at chopping herbs.
Chicken producers are wise enough to know that if they damage the product during the growth and production cycle the value of their product goes down tremendously.
And if they damage a chicken, they just end up throwing away the carcass or half-dead bird. Or just let it rot in a battery cage.
Let me requote a part of that previous quote:
if they damage the product
Wouldn’t it be great if we could get away from thinking of chickens as “products”?
aki
12|Mar|2005 3I don’t believe the entire world should be vegetarian, but the amount of meat consumed in this country (and many many others) creates a system of abuse and torture towards animals. How can that be disputed?
H-V
25|Mar|2005 4This machine is in use in the Netherlands,
http://www.catcher.nl
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