My relative was right in his indirect way of pointing out that chickens aren’t like humans. I had a friend from Colorado tell me the same thing once, “chickens don’t have a life like you and I do”. This is very true, they do not. Chickens do not go out for happy hour on Friday nights, they don’t have friends over for dinner and then finish up the night with a good game of scrabble, they don’t water ski, or shop at Kohl’s department store to get the latest deals, or go to Yogurtland to get a yogurt. How an animal’s life is lived of course, depends on what type of animal you are talking about. Simple as their life may seem, it is not insignificant, at least not to that animal it isn’t. Since their lives are so simple… taking away the bare necessities that do make them very different than human beings, is almost that much more tragic. They don’t need much, but what they need, as simple as it may seem to you and I, is very essential for them.

So what do chickens and herd animals and pigs do when not confined? As Joe Salatin would say they are in their pigness or chickeness. These animals were initially born in the sunshine and fresh air and like any living creature they require it to remain healthy, both mentally and physically. You are not going to see a chicken talking to his therapist about the harsh conditions in which it is forced to live, but you will notice it in other ways. Debeaking was only done because chickens peck at each other when stressed out and forced to live in closed quarters. Like the streets and interstates of any major city, you experience more road rage when people do not have enough space to just “be”. Chickens sunbathe, they scratch at the ground searching for bugs and worms that would naturally be a part of their diet. They like to lay eggs and fuss over them and forage. Sometimes you see them running around and socializing with the other chickens. They like to nest, they like to perch. This is what chickens do. When you take away these very simple things, you have removed their very core of life. Herd animals same thing, they socialize, establish pecking order amongst them, care for their young, mate, wander and graze for their food. They enjoy the sunshine and like to lay there and sunbathe when given a chance. When removed from that atmosphere, we do in fact remove the very core of what makes a cow a cow, or a pig a pig, or a horse of course. All kidding aside, I have been a yogi off and on for about 7 years now. One of the things that I hear the most from people who have never taken yoga is, “but your just standing there” or “you are not doing anything”. They assume because this type of exercise appears to be so simple and calm in its very existence that there must not be a whole lot going on, when in fact if these same critics of yoga were to try and do some of these “just standing there” poses, they would experience for themselves what is really going on and it is a whole lot more than meets the eye.

As we camped at Rocky Mountain National Park this summer, I lay in my sleeping bag and listened to the elk call back and forth to each other across the meadow. A beautiful and eerie sound as everything else was so quiet. As beautiful as it sounded, the calling had the same tone and what appeared to be the same frequency going over and over again. To me, it sounded the same, but to the other elk on the receiving end of things, there was an entire conversation happening. If we could interview chickens, or cattle or sheep as to what they hear when humans are talking? Most likely they would describe what I just stated above. It all sounds the same to them.

There has been many articles written about people who lay in a coma and whether they can “hear” you talking to them or not or if they are aware of what is going on around them, though they cannot communicate that to anyone. Some who have come out of a coma did in fact confirm, they could hear people, they were aware of things going on around them, but they just could not express it. A lack of expression does not mean that things are not happening and to assume so truly is ignorant. Dr. Temple Grandin proved exactly this with her gift and dedication to observe cattle and their behavior. She could see the little details that people in general have missed; she could understand their language, what they do and why they do it. Once she became aware of how cattle really live and react to things, only then was she able to make the necessary changes in how we raise and slaughter our cattle in a better and more humane way.

I am not asking anyone to go home and spend hours observing chickens behavior, or pigs for that matter, but ask yourself if you really believe that chickens, pigs, cattle, sheep and any other livestock that we eat, deserve to have the very simple things that we do not understand taken away from them, when that is what makes them the unique animal that they are. If we are going to eat them, let’s let them live how they should live and lets buy from those who understand how very important this is. The next time you see a product that describes on it’s label that the animals are raised where they can display their natural behavior and habitat, you will understand what this really means and the importance of it all. Then reward that food producer by purchasing it.

JLW-W