Is this morally reprehensible?

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-04-14 12:57pm

Two California poultry farmers who fed some 30,000 live chickens into wood chippers will not face criminal charges because they had permission from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, prosecutors said on Friday.

I know there's a bad gut reaction to hearing about anything being put through a wood chipper, but is it really substantially less humane than cutting the bird's head off or shooting it? At least the chipper kills the bird very thoroughly and quickly, so you don't get the classic "chicken running with it's head cut off" effect.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-04-14 01:00pm

I have to ask what purpose they had to do so.... But they did get permission and seemed to have a purpose other then "Shits and giggles", so I don't see it as totaly wrong. It just seems.... strange.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2003-04-14 01:02pm

Is it better than picking the chicken up by the neck and twirling it in the air a couple times to wring it's neck like my GreatAunt did?

After the first 30, I think they'd get tired...

Queeb Salaron · Post by **Queeb Salaron** » 2003-04-14 01:03pm

Hell, I'D choose death by woodchipper over decapitation.

Go out with a bang, baby. Yeah!

Joe · Post by **Joe** » 2003-04-14 01:10pm

Well, it is a little bit disgusting, but it's not all that inhumane.

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-04-14 01:21pm

Alyeska wrote:I have to ask what purpose they had to do so...

If you read the article, they were operating an egg farm, and these birds were too old to lay. They couldn't sell them to soup makers because they were quarantined for "Exotic Newcastle Disease", so killing them en masse was the only option.

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-04-14 02:27pm

Apparently if you edit your post to correct spelling errors, etc., you can kill you poll.

Feel free to re-enter your votes.

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-04-14 02:33pm

I don't think it counts as euthanasia - the chickens weren't in pain, just useless.

Bug-Eyed Earl · Post by **Bug-Eyed Earl** » 2003-04-14 02:58pm

They should have gotten Ryan Dunn from "Jackass" to do a reprise of the wood chipper bit he did on that show.

Einhander Sn0m4n · Post by **Einhander Sn0m4n** » 2003-04-14 02:58pm

Ted C wrote:Apparently if you edit your post to correct spelling errors, etc., you can kill you poll.

Feel free to re-enter your votes.

D00d, I found this out the hard way. See the link in my Sig for my misadventures with that.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-04-14 03:01pm

It's a bit gruesome but if it kills them quickly I don't think it's inhumane,

Ted C · Post by **Ted C** » 2003-04-14 03:43pm

Einhander Sn0m4n wrote:
Ted C wrote:Apparently if you edit your post to correct spelling errors, etc., you can kill you poll.
D00d, I found this out the hard way. See the link in my Sig for my misadventures with that.

Yes, it does seem to do screwy things. I'm NOT going to mess with it anymore.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-04-14 04:51pm

I'm having a flashback to the scene from Fargo...

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2003-04-14 07:20pm

I'm sure it was the only option, as keeping them would cost them money, and releasing them into the wild would mean death for them. Really, it's no more inhumane than a guillotine or a gunshot, and probably more effiecent.

Baron Mordo · Post by **Baron Mordo** » 2003-04-14 07:21pm

Especially since you could use the goo that comes out as chum.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-04-14 07:24pm

innerbrat wrote:I don't think it counts as euthanasia - the chickens weren't in pain, just useless.

Agreed.
Can you imagine the smell, though? What a gore-fest.

Sriad · Post by **Sriad** » 2003-04-15 01:29am

I have to say I'm fascinated by what the method they used to feed the chickens into the wood chipper might have been. Did they put them in one by one? Did they stuff a bunch of chickens into sacks at once and then toss the sacks in? Did they load the chickens into dump trucks a thousand at a time and upended them into funnels leading to the chipper?

Seriously, how long must it take to mulch THIRTY THOUSAND chickens? What did they do with the left overs? Did they ask their neighbor if they could use his wood chipper for an afternoon and then leave twenty tons of shredded chicken on his lawn? This could keep me entertained for hours...

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-04-15 02:25am

Crap, what would I have given for being there.

Sokar · Post by **Sokar** » 2003-04-15 02:27am

While I admit , I laughed when I first read this , the idea of feeding live chickens into a woodchipper is throughly reprehensible. For thoes uninitiated in to thew workings of as chipper whatever you fed into it first goes into a ste of toothed cogs that are designed to grab ahold of a branch or tree and feed it inexorably into the chipper blades, these cogs would easily crush, but are unlikely to kill a live animal fed into the chipper. Also , the 'blades' inside a chipper are more like large industrial chisles rather than edged like a lawn mower blade. The dont so much 'cut' as they do 'tear' apart anything that you put in to the chippers maw, so in essence the chickens were crushed and then shredded while still breathing, as nasty a death as I can think of.........

It would have taken less time to seperate out these chickens and poision then enmasse than the hours of disgusting work it would take to fed then into a set of chippers.......and then what the hell do you do with a pile of steaming chicken shreds, all mixed together with blood, bone and shit? 30,000 chickens means on average a weight of 4 lbs per chicken, that translates into 120,000 lbs(60 fucking TONS) of shredded chicken, you'd need a 8 semi-dumptruck's just to haul them all away........... *turnsgreen*

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2003-04-15 06:58am

Still at least no-one got any pictures of it...

Grand Moff Yenchin · Post by **Grand Moff Yenchin** » 2003-04-15 07:37am

Sounds sick and messy, and if it's like what Sokar wrote......

Grand Moff Yenchin · Post by **Grand Moff Yenchin** » 2003-04-15 07:41am

Other thoughts: They could also electrify the chickens and burn the corpses a lathose mad cows.

Raoul Duke, Jr. · Post by **Raoul Duke, Jr.** » 2003-04-15 11:55am

Sokar wrote:While I admit , I laughed when I first read this , the idea of feeding live chickens into a woodchipper is throughly reprehensible. For thoes uninitiated in to thew workings of as chipper whatever you fed into it first goes into a ste of toothed cogs that are designed to grab ahold of a branch or tree and feed it inexorably into the chipper blades, these cogs would easily crush, but are unlikely to kill a live animal fed into the chipper. Also , the 'blades' inside a chipper are more like large industrial chisles rather than edged like a lawn mower blade. The dont so much 'cut' as they do 'tear' apart anything that you put in to the chippers maw, so in essence the chickens were crushed and then shredded while still breathing, as nasty a death as I can think of.........

It would have taken less time to seperate out these chickens and poision then enmasse than the hours of disgusting work it would take to fed then into a set of chippers.......and then what the hell do you do with a pile of steaming chicken shreds, all mixed together with blood, bone and shit? 30,000 chickens means on average a weight of 4 lbs per chicken, that translates into 120,000 lbs(60 fucking TONS) of shredded chicken, you'd need a 8 semi-dumptruck's just to haul them all away........... *turnsgreen*

But the worst question, really is this: after all of that, where the hell are you supposed to haul them away to? You think your local dump is bad now, buddy, wait 'til 60 tons of Tyson reject meat hit it... oh, the smell...

Lord Sander · Post by **Lord Sander** » 2003-04-15 11:26pm

Somewhat (un)related,
over here there's mass killings of esp. chickens (but also other birds) going on because of a disease they want to stop from spreading, and the method of choice is gassing them. Something about that particular choice irks me, even if it is just chickens we're talking about.
</irrational>

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Is this morally reprehensible?

Is using a wood chipper to euthanize chickens immoral?

Is this morally reprehensible?