The Case of the Curious Gypsy Chicken

By Holladay Allen
Native Foods Tribe Member

Did you know that at the present moment chickens outnumber humans on Planet Earth?  Yep, that’s right, if the chickens of the world decided to rise up and start a revolution they could take us all out in a heartbeat.  Although that is an unlikely scenario seeing as we seem to be the only animals hell-bent on destroying this planet and its lovely array of wildlife.  (Whoops, I apologize, sometimes I slip into momentary bouts of cynicism, but not to fear, I am optimistic 99.1 percent of the time.)  The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated that there were approximately 16 billion chickens in 2002 whereas in 2008, the World Bank tallied the global human population upwards of 6 billion.  Whoa!  That means there is more than double the amount of chickens than humans in the world.  The upside to this is the fact that extinction does not seem to be an issue for the intelligent chicken.  The downside, as many of you know, is that a majority of the world’s chickens are being raised for food in factory farms.  (If you are unaware of what takes place on factory farms across the world, please visit PETA’s website for more details.) Chickens are family oriented animals with social structure and a language all their own.  Check out this great article about Dr. Chris Evans of Macquarie University who has performed numerous studies on the intelligence of our feathered friends: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1534177/So-who-are-you-calling-bird-brain-Chatter-of-chickens-proves-they-are-brighter-than-we-thought.html

I grew up in Key West, Florida a lovely little island where the locals cohabitate with the rogue gypsy chickens that wander the streets.  Back in the day, Key West was an uncluttered oasis of mom and pop businesses, palm trees, and eccentric folks. 

Chickens were raised in yards by families or in back of local groceries.  They were raised for food but allowed to wander free with their families until their ill-fated demise.  With the commercialization and influx of corporate America onto the small island, so came the giant grocery stores.

  Mom and pop eventually closed and/or were forced to compete with the big guys’ prices, so the chickens were let loose and their population started to grow.  While you can often hear the tourists cooing with delight as they sip their margaritas and watch the chicken families parade down Duval Street, you can also hear the locals lamenting the fact that Rudy the Rooster commences his wake-up calls at three a.m. each morning, continuing every 30 minutes, until the sun actually rises at about 6:29 a.m. 

So began the notorious Key West Chicken Wars: the chicken lovers versus the chicken haters.  The city actually had to take a measure to protect the chickens establishing the entire island as a “bird sanctuary and preserve” making it illegal to kill and even disturb the chickens.  Yay chickens!

 

One summer, newly committed to my vegan lifestyle, I returned home from college to work and enjoy a couple months of island living.  My father had told me over the phone about a nuisance of a chicken that kept sneaking into his house while he was doing yard work.  He thought that the chicken lived across the canal and was fed by one of the neighboring families.  After work one day, I headed over to his house for a late afternoon boat ride.  While he was getting the boat ready, we chatted about whatever… friends, island gossip, what he had for dinner the night before:  Chicken!  Oh and it was especially delicious!  He had finally caught his pesky intruder after chasing her around the house for 45 minutes.  He caught her with his bare hands and snapped her neck, then defeathered her and slow roasted her in the oven.  Holy cannoli!  I was floored!  My father killed an animal with his bare hands, and it was one of the gypsy chickens!  One of the main reasons I became vegan was the fact that I absolutely detest the idea of any animal, human, or creature suffering.  Modern day food systems fully depend on factory farms, which are truly torture chambers.  If factory farms were abolished, along with guns, and humans were left to their own devices, their hands, to kill, dismember, and prepare animals for food, would I still be vegan?  Would I eat the gypsy chicken?  No, definitely not for me.  However, the incident with my father and the gypsy chicken always conjures up conflicting feelings and thoughts.  I am not entirely sure that I think he did a bad thing, but I also feel it is downright awful.   What do you think?

 

Comments

[candi]

I think killing is wrong, period. Intentionally chasing and killing an animal because you view it as a pest is detestable. It takes a very disturbing level of aggression in a person to carry out an act like that, just because a chicken did something to bother him? I can't imagine that there is anything to justify it, and certainly nothing the chicken did to warrant a death like that. I think there are a lot of people who are bigger pests, what should be done with them? Humans are supposed to be the more intelligent species, but it's often unbelievable what we do to animals and to each other. Let's just hope those millions of chickens don't rise up and revolt against us one of these days. And I find it disturbing to see an article like this on Native Food's blog, especially since they are so much about peace and a truly vegan approach to life.