Last week , I talked about Slow Food USA ’s Slow Meat safari , direct at encourage eaters to make more responsible meat choices . This week , the beast - rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is hoping to make you discontinue eating chicken altogether . They ’re not givingblood and bones masked as KFC mealsto children this meter ; rather , they ’re taking meat eater through a day in the lifetime of a chicken via a virtual - world video game cal “ I , Chicken . ”
In the television game , you get to be a crybaby , flap your wing and adopt your crybaby friends around a pasture until a loud farmer snap you up and tosses you into a crateful head for processing . I have n’t played the secret plan myself — PETA is about to go on duty tour with it to college campuses — but I did watchPETA ’s promotional videowith pastime .
While I ’ve never personally experience life as a wimp , my farm has chickens — a fate of them — both core birds and lay hens that are either free - reach or kept in crybaby tractor on ley . establish on my own experience , I receive this picture unrealistic for these reasons :
What You ThoughtAfter I watched this video with a kind of what - just - occur expression on my face , I set out to see if the “ I , Chicken ” campaign could really have the effect that PETA is going for , which is , according to their blog , to help people “ develop empathy for Gallus gallus , who are n’t seen as individual with interest , want and penury but rather as manufacturer of meat and eggs . ”
I asked a bit of chicken - feed supporter from unlike parts of the country who have dissimilar levels of farming knowledge to take a face at the video and give me some feedback . No one learned anything about chicken output from watch the TV . ( “ Was it supposed to be informative ? It felt more like it was render to appeal to the witness ’s sympathies rather than provide concrete fact , ” suppose a friend in California . )
Some of my Quaker said they felt empathy for the chicken . Susan Dedrick - Shuford , a friend in Arizona , put herself in the chicken ’s place : “ OH MY GOSH ! Do n’t take Mildred , Willamina , Gert , Ethel , Ginger . … Stop being so rough . WHERE ARE YOU direct US ? ! I want to peck your eyes out ! What are you doing ? What is happening ? ( While on the conveyor belt :) This can not be good . ”
Also , Matt Unger in Missouri channeled his inner chicken when he said , “ I had an immense sense of apprehension . I prayed with all my chicken might to my lord and savior Foghorn Leghorn that I would not be chosen . ”
None of my Friend changed their judgement about rust chicken . ( PETA says more than 1 million wimp are eaten every hour ! )
More than one friend maneuver out that as a chicken , while you might feel fear about being picked up and put in a crateful in the back of a motortruck , you would n’t be able to realize the granger ’s parole ( “ Get those three chicken , too . We ’ll take ’em all to the slaughterhouse . Do n’t worry about grabbing them and breaking their wing . Just dump them into crates as fast as you’re able to . ” ) or read the “ Slaughter ” mark .
Tara Holden in North Carolina had a great thought : “ The part where they were on the conveyer belt remind me of aSimpsonsepisode where Homer tries to economize a cow . As they are in a drone draw close their destination he says ‘ Oh , depend . They brought us to the laughterhouse ! ’ Then the motortruck motility and he visualize its the shambles and screams . ” Heh .
A Better ApproachAll prank aside , many of you think that a different glide path could have brought more awareness and better intellect to the reality of factory farmed chicken .
“ The video and campaign are sticky and heavily - handed , ” say J. Bryant in Pennsylvania . “ More constructive would have been to follow up with depictions of humane Gallus gallus agriculture and/or suggestions on how to denounce for chickens raised humanely . ”
Carrie Smiecinski Hornung in New Jersey paint a picture PETA put a camera on the back of a poulet if the organization want us to really know what it ’s like to be a chicken . I am all for this idea ! In fact , if one of you has a GoPro - eccentric television camera that you ’d be willing to donate to the cause , I ’d be happy to camera - up one of our chickens and stake some videos here . That would be awesome , really !
Brian Walker in Indiana points out , “ It ’s easy for me to eat crybaby , as I ’m come away from the processing part . ” Maybe PETA indigence to do a TV of chicken processing , like the one put out by HobbyFarms.com , that show various — include humane — butchering techniques .
And I could n’t agree more with Michelle Youngblood in Kentucky when she told me , “ I do suppose beast are for consumption , however , the current production from birth to death urgently postulate to be overhauled into a healthy ( for the animal and us ) and sustainable product . ”
Now , PETA is wind out the “ I , Chicken ” campaign to college campuses . After pupil meet the practical world game , they get a vegan starter outfit and vegan bite . ( I ’d give it a try for the snack . )
Less drama , more facts , PETA ! And , please , do something to discern industrial farm practice from us sustainable kinfolk .
see more about chicken - keeping from HobbyFarms.com :
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