£8.10 on a flipping chicken!

[mnahmnah]

Went to Lidl yesterday to spend as little as possible on a small shop to get us through the weekend. Needed a chicken for Sunday dinner and as a vegetarian I didn’t want to hang around looking at them all. I was sure I picked one from the shelf labelled as £3.75. DM has just informed me that it was a free range fancy chicken costing £8.10 on the label! Already in the oven. It had better be a bloody gorgeous chicken for the people eating it! I don’t even benefit!

What’s been your most costly shopping mistake? Make me feel less stupid please!

I don't kill harmless wildlife (spiders, moths etc - I trap them and release them outside). Going around crushing spiders is not normal behaviour, surely? God help the human race if so.

On the rare occasion I've had to deal with pests/insects that are harmful to humans, I've used the most humane method available. That doesn't necessarily mean never killing them, but means not torturing them or causing avoidable pain (which is my view of what goes on in the farms that produce cheap chickens).

When I used to eat meat (years ago before I was veggie), I only ate higher welfare meat for all the reasons given in this thread.

The OP is vegetarian

If OP doesn't generally buy chicken then she would have no clue how much it was anyway apart from the shelf price which said £3.75, so obviously to get to the checkout and it was £8.10, of course she would feel robbed.

@WisherWood The answer to food poverty isn't to make animals suffer more. It's to pay the poor enough so they can eat well.

I agree but that that will put up prices and fuel the argument that it's because we haven't got a supply of low-paid foreign workers on tap anymore.

I'm neither a vegan nor a vegetarian. I don't buy KFC and I never kill spiders. OK if I have an opinion?

You'd really put a chicken over the warmth of your kids, excellent

How did you get that from a post saying everyone should be able to eat well? The poor shouldn't be poor. It shouldn't be a choice. We should prioritise food production so that everyone has enough and the food is produced ethically. This isn't beyond our wit but we don't do it because we think individualistically.

That's not the triumphant gotcha that you think it is. I keep rats and mice away by not leaving stuff around they might want to eat. I leave spiders in my house, if they're the species that are better off indoors, because they'll eat other things that I don't want indoors. Some I catch and put out. I use things like cedar oil to keep moths out of clothes. There are ways of living that don't involve destructiveness and a lack of care for the environment.

It's actually quite depressing that someone would think, "Ha - I bet you squash spiders!" is a gotcha. In their world, crushing things for no reason is clearly normal.

You're showing that you think it's normal to kill spiders etc. Despite having a fear of spiders I have never killed one. I always put them outside. My cat brings in mice and I catch them and release them. There are many of us who literally wouldn't hurt a fly!

Why do you have a cat? They're carnivores and kill many small birds.

Good question! All I can say is I love cats. I rescued a stray cat who was existing entirely on wild animals. At least now I feed him so that has drastically reduced his hunting of wildlife. He very rarely catches birds. He does catch mice but only kills the minority of them because I release them before he kills them.

Traditional battery hens are banned In the UK, if you buy RSPCA farm assured they won't have been kept in a cage of any sort. Years ago I read an article that said free range wasn't brilliant for chickens either due to predators and possible problems with them eating something they shouldn't. It turned out barn raised is the best as they do have some outdoor access but also plenty of room to wander and perch.

@derxa "Why do you have a cat? They're carnivores and kill many small birds."

What's the point here? Cats are obligate carnivores. Presumably even the most vegetarian of vegetarians isn't going to force their cat to eat hummus. (Although mine does actually like it!)

No one needs to have a cat. I don't understand why a vegan or vegetarian would own a cat which results in the death of animals

This post is pretty stupid! I’d like to see your sources that vegetarians are demanding the extermination of tigers.

If you buy a cheap chicken you will almost always find hock burns on the legs. These are caused by the chicken sat in its own urine which eats through the flesh to the bone. Why anyone would want to eat anything that had been stewing in its own piss is beyond me (setting aside the animal welfare issues). Even free range is hardly free range, but at least it's an improvement.

@RoyalGala "This post is pretty stupid! I’d like to see your sources that vegetarians are demanding the extermination of tigers"

I'm not doing your research for you-educate yourself!

I'm a big cat lover and even I think there are too many cats (in terms of their impact on wildlife) and we shouldn't deliberately breed excessive numbers of cats. However, cats exist! There are many thousands of cats in the UK who need a home. By adopting a cat you're just giving a home to a cat that already exists. If I hadn't homed my cat (who was a stray) he'd be killing even more animals to eat! Just because I don't eat meat doesn't mean I think that all the cats in the country should be exterminated. Humans do far more ecological damage than cats.

I think you’ll find most vegetarians and vegans know that an obligate carnivore has to eat meat. I don’t need educating, if you’re going to make statements about a group of people who you assume want this to happen, it should at least be backed up by valid and reputable sources.

#notmycat #notinmybackyard #mylittlesoldierwouldntafly

The less you pay the lower the welfare standards are. Chickens are already stunned in electric water baths that frequently don't even work.

Every extra penny means their life is a tiny bit less horrific. Still horrific of course but what are we going to do? Stop hurting them completely? Of course not.

Up to you, but you have to think about where the scrimping is done to get you the price you want.

I mean you will find plenty of people who argue against pet ownership, period. Everyone has their line in the sand.

I do agree with this, in countries where there’s a higher number of ferals, there is a bigger impact on wildlife.

@RoyalGala before I reply- you're not being serious are you?