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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to feel sorry that chickens' happiness isn't worth 60p to most people?

335 replies

oohdaddypig · 18/07/2012 16:46

So - in my local Sainsburies you can buy pre-cooked whole chickens. Free range cost 60p more than the battery farmed variety.

Girl behind the counter told me almost no one buys the free range ones.

Now, I know things are very very tight these days for many families. But this is Sainburies where the average shopper is probably slightly better off.

Doesn't anyone care about where their food comes from now at all? Is the only thing that matters now the cost?

I'm not vegetarian - but I try to shop reasonably thoughtfully, locally when I can etc,

poor chooks!

OP posts:
elizaregina · 18/07/2012 21:15

op totally agree with you on 60p but you also have to remeber meat has gone through the roof price wise - so an extra 60p on top of a horrendous price hike may well price alot of people out.

I can personally only afford to buy any meat - reduced in the first place.....

LurkingAndLearningForNow · 18/07/2012 21:16

ItsAllGoingToBeFine

Perhaps I'm being a little sensitive, or perhaps I didn't explain myself well.

We were eating from canned food drives. I've always had special dietary needs and was getting sicker by the day.

Your post was very insensitive IMO.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 18/07/2012 21:26

lurking I am sorry, no offence was meant. I neither realised that beans were your only food, or that you were becoming malnourished.

I was merely trying to say that where one has little money and can make choices, one could argue that it might be more ethical to make a nutritious meal based around beans, rather than around low welfare meat.

I realise that in some situations (including yours) there may not be a choice to make.

Again, I did not mean for you to take my comments personally, and I did not mean to upset you

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 18/07/2012 21:34

If I were an animal, I'd choose not to be killed and eaten. Given that we've made that choice for them, the rest seems somewhat secondary to me.

LurkingAndLearningForNow · 18/07/2012 21:36

ItAllGoingToBeFine

I really appreciate your apology. I'm sorry I assumed you were insensitive, I just didn't want to give too much away about my life in my post. Should have realised I wasn't being specific enough, so please accept my apology for being over sensitive and a bit snappy. :)

I agree with you that the right choices can be made. If you can afford ethical food (obviously doesn't just apply to meat..Palm oil for example) than it's my opinion it's all of our moral obligations to purchase as ethically as within our means. Change can only come from showing that the public doesn't agree.

quoteunquote · 18/07/2012 21:38

It would be far more productive to explore ideas about how to create a society where everyone could afford to buy meat that has been raised at the highest welfare standard.

elizaregina · 18/07/2012 21:38

what about ditching supermarket meat altogether and supporting local butchers?

Madeyemoodysmum · 18/07/2012 21:40

I never buy whole chickens as I hate all the mess of the carcass etc but always buy free range eggs. Never battery or barn even if that's all they had I'd go without

Zimbah · 18/07/2012 21:41

Steaming if I knew I was going to be killed, but had a choice of being tormented first or living the life of Riley, I know which I'd choose. Obviously the analogy doesn't work brilliantly as if I, a human being, knew I was going to be killed and eaten then my remaining life would be spent terrified, but animals are unable to comprehend the future and therefore it doesn't apply.

nothingoldcanstay · 18/07/2012 21:43

TheOriginalSteamingNit - Mmm as an animal something would kill and eat you. Or you could die of starvation, or a broken something or other. No animals goes into home for the elderly to die you know..

ophelia275 · 18/07/2012 21:47

I don't get this. The chicken is going to be killed so that you can eat it whether it is free range or not. Free range chickens might assuage the conscience of people eating them but at the end of the day, they are still going to be killed so that people can consume them. The end product is a dead chicken one way or another.

Zimbah · 18/07/2012 21:49

Well on that basis Ophelia, why do any of us bother to do anything to be happy? We're all going to die after all.

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 18/07/2012 21:50

Yes, but we were invited to empathise with the animal, which I agree doesn't really work.

I think it's a bit odd to get so het up about how an animal that you are planning to eat when dead lives in the meantime. Unless of course it's just for the anthropocentric reason that a dead animal that was treated nicely right up until the moment of slaughter tastes nicer, hmm?

quoteunquote · 18/07/2012 21:51

we get our meat straight from the farmer(s), around here you put your name down for half a pig, half a cow, half a lamb, they take orders every six months, then bring on what they have ordered,

we get given a lot, or we do swaps for things we have a glut of.

so we know it's well looked after we can see them as they graze,

It means the money goes straight to source,

we are taking pigs(rare breeds) in to slaughter later this week, they will go to a very local abattoir, so minimum travel,

lots of the rare breeds are only kept going by farmers/smallholders getting pre orders so they can afford to commit to supporting the breed.

Zimbah · 18/07/2012 21:56

How is it anthropocentric to want animals not to be tormented? Do you have any pets? Would it be ok to buy a horse as a pet and then abuse it just for fun? If not, why not? Would it ok to buy a horse for eventual eating and abuse it first? What's the difference?

Original poster
oohdaddypig · 18/07/2012 22:05

OriginalSN - I find your argment very illogical. Of course it's important how we live. We, as humans, are all going to die too. But does that mean we should all give up on having any kind of meaningful happy life and just sit on the ground moaning and rocking awaiting our deaths?!

Why can't we empaphse with an animal? We know that animals feel a wide range of emotions, including fear. Why can't we seek to minimise them? I'm not sure what anthropocentric means (wtf) but I think you are missing the point.

OP posts:
TheOriginalSteamingNit · 18/07/2012 22:08

Well if you don't know what anthropocentric means, you would be missing the point, yes. If you've decided that a chicken exists to be killed for you to eat, it's a bit daft to expect adulation for being kind to the chicken you're going to kill and eat right up until the moment you kill and eat the chicken.

sea74 · 18/07/2012 22:15

I do not reallyunderstand why english people do not cook more.
Sometimes i go to M&S and see dozends of retired people buying pre-cooked food. Cant they even be bothered to take a fryingpan and cook a chicken steak themselves??? I find it so sad to see them only with cans, tins and microwave food.
So, this people that want to save those 60p shuld actually buy a raw chicken and they will save even more!

Zimbah · 18/07/2012 22:16

Again, so is it ok for me to kick a puppy, or only ok for me to kick a puppy if I'm then going to eat it?

Original poster
oohdaddypig · 18/07/2012 22:17

It's irrelevant what the "purpose" of the chicken is to a bunch of humans having a debate online - the fact remains that all living creatures are worthy of respect. I certainly don't expect adulation from you or anyone else, but perhaps next time you are purchasing your chook you might think for a split second about where the animal came from.

OP posts:
theinets · 18/07/2012 22:45

Animals were put on this planet to serve us. It's preferable if they don't suffer but don't get hung up on it. It's killed and eaten by me anyway. It's only an animal.

WilsonFrickett · 18/07/2012 22:47

that's such a generalisation sea. When DH is away for work I often stock up on M&S meals, because when I've child-wrangled and worked all day on my own, the last thing I want to do is cook, and it feels lovely and luxurious to just heat up something nice from M&S. The rest of the time, I cook, from scratch. And M&S is a better retailer in terms of animal welfare

boneyjonesy · 18/07/2012 22:55

'Let's just suggest you had two choices-sitting in your own shit constantly, without light or any other human company
OR caged some of the time with the hope of escaping and getting a little breather of fresh air and daylight.
Hmm tough one eh?'

i am not a chicken I don't think like a chicken.I don't know if chickens care about fresh air and daylight

Greythorne · 18/07/2012 23:02

I really don't care about chickens.

I care about women and girls being systematically raped as a tool of war in parts of Sudan.

I care about mothers who routinely die in childbirth all over the world due to lack of care.

I care about orphaned children on places like Zimbabwe. Read a sad story about an orphaned 4 yo s few weeks ago.

I could go on. Point is, I really don't care about chickens.

Madeyemoodysmum · 18/07/2012 23:06

Theinets. That's possibly one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen on mumsnet. I say that as a meat eater but care and welfare of other creatures other than our own species is surely one of the qualities that sets us apart from animals!