Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that chickens are being unfairly favoured by being given their own topic when all other pets have to slum it in a single category?

46 replies

Threadworm · 18/03/2008 09:38

Why can't they sit in a very small cage thread in the pets topic, instead of going free range with a whole topic to themselves?

Can we have a guinea pig topic please.

OP posts:
themildmanneredbunny · 18/03/2008 09:38

chickens aren't pets though are they?
they are dinner

chickytwotimes · 18/03/2008 09:39

Ooh, yes please! I love guinea pigs.

MotherFunk · 18/03/2008 09:41

Message withdrawn

hippipotami · 18/03/2008 09:41

Maybe because the chickens are not just pets? Maybe because they cross the pets/ethical living/gardening/recipe topics? (and how many other pets cross all those )

hippipotami · 18/03/2008 09:42

That was to the op, sorry

aefondkiss · 18/03/2008 09:43

fab

yabu

going off to find said topic

marmadukescarlet · 18/03/2008 09:44

Although I believe Guinea Pigs are quite tasty....

Do you have egg envy?

Threadworm · 18/03/2008 09:46

No egg envy. My canary has laid eggs. But I suppose she wouldn't be welcome in the chickens topic

OP posts:
Hassled · 18/03/2008 09:49

Chickens deserve their own topic because, unlike guinea pigs, they are multi-tasking. They are pets who provide food.

If you follow my (dodgy) logic we could also have a topic for pet dogs who bring home ducks or pheasants for supper, or pet pigs who find truffles. But cats and guinea-pigs etc. do not multitask. So there .

tortoiseSHELL · 18/03/2008 09:55

Chickens don't fit into any of the categories - and there are lots of us with them - and anyway, I think hopefully it may be more of a 'livestock' topic, with room for goats, pigs etc.

Threadworm · 18/03/2008 09:57

(I don't really mind, of course! And I'd love to keep chickens if it was practical for me.)

Actually, a wider, livestock, category would make more sense.

OP posts:
aefondkiss · 18/03/2008 10:00

where is the hen topic?

tortoiseSHELL · 18/03/2008 10:00

Justine has promised one, but I don't think it has arrived yet!

dilbertina · 18/03/2008 11:17

motherfunk - I think part of the point is that many people can and do keep chickens even in fairly urban gardens, fewer people have the possibility of keeping a cow, pig etc

Also, it is easy to keep chickens and they don't have to be eaten to serve a useful purpose.

oggsfrog · 18/03/2008 11:23

Hassled, my cat once brought home a rabbit so there .
Granted it was a neighbours pet rather than a free-range one, but theoretically we could have eaten it, so cats can multitask .

HolyMotherFunkOfGod · 18/03/2008 11:25

Well, just because they are convenient, they get more attention than the other animals..

Sure, its not hard to keep sheep or pigs is it? Cows fair enough, they are really big.

Gordon Ramsay had those sheep in his back garden, and George Clooney has a pet pig. TBH, I don't know anyone who keeps any farmyard animals as pets.

I just think chickens are getting all the attention..

OverMyDeadBody · 18/03/2008 11:28

But chickens are not pets are they?

Mzybe we should have a topic entitled 'the good life' or 'aspirational smallholdings' so that the focus isn't solely on the chickens though? Would that help all those out there with chicken envy?

scottishmummy · 18/03/2008 11:40

ahhh but are chicken's pets or are they dinner?Dog au vin - nope. Coq au vin - yes

PrimulaVeris · 18/03/2008 11:51

Hmm, rabbits could go in either pets or food, couldn't they?

Lovesdogsandcats · 18/03/2008 17:32

All 'normal' farming has levels of cruelty attached to it, but most people (thinking people) have to agree that current battery chicken 'living' conditions ara actually a living hell.

Anyone who still eats non free range eggs after seeing the evidence is sick.

And this is why there is so much coverage.

And freeing ex battery eggs is such a nice thing to do.

Calisteregg · 18/03/2008 17:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lovesdogsandcats · 18/03/2008 17:41

ooops, its not the egge being freed, it's the hens

Lovesdogsandcats · 18/03/2008 17:43

ooooh I would love a smallholding, so yes to the ASPIRATIONAL SMALLHOLDINGS topic.

I'd also love a huge aviary type thing with rabbits and guinea pigs in it.

tortoiseSHELL · 18/03/2008 18:14

Hmm, I think the title should be 'Chickens and livestock' or something similar so that it remains a 'chicken' topic, as that is what most of us have, but includes other 'Tom and Barbara' type ventures.

GentleOtter · 18/03/2008 18:28

Lovesdogsandcats- sorry but I'm going to have to put you straight on the "All 'normal' farming has levels of cruelty attached to it".
If we 'normal' farmers were found to be using practices even remotely upsetting to our livestock then SEERAD, DEFRA, Animal Health and the police wold be round to investigate.
And for what it is worth 'Aspirational' sucks.

Swipe left for the next trending thread