Usually they arrive every three weeks like clockwork,” she said Wednesday. “And out of 100 birds you may have one or two that die in shipping.
The wrongness of what's happening here is not just that the Post Office is experiencing unusual delays. Even the normal state of affairs shows a grotesque indifference to life.
I’m not sure you have all the information necessary to make that statement so broadly.
This process of shipping poultry has developed and been perfected over many decades. Everything is carefully measured so that the birds are born in waves and will get to their destination on a set schedule. This is done absolutely with their well-being in mind, Ie: the packaging, the chemical heat, the amount of time so as to make sure they can get to sufficient food and water, etc. Many hatcheries will only ship in large quantities too because they’ve found they can keep the birds safer in that packaging vs what’s used for small batches.
We researched our options and found that had we used a “local” hatchery, it would not have been any better experience for the birds than shipping through the mail.
This is not to say that there aren’t serious issues in the broader poultry industry, but to say that hatcheries are acting with a “grotesque indifference to life” is an overly broad statement not in line with the actual practices at play.
I'd say a 2% mortality rate to ship chicks is unacceptable. We've practically shut down the entire world economy because of a 0.5-2% mortality rate from Covid-19.
It's a symptom of a bigger issue. These hatcheries even under the best of circumstances are creating lives that will be hard and short just to turn a profit.
Real life has predators and infant mortality too. Should i feel bad about keeping predators as pets and seeing them hunting bunnies in the yard? I don’t.
The state of affairs where people find grotesque ordinary life occurrences because they are so separated is troubling.
Yes, I am very well aware of this. Which is why I don't eat chickens, other animals, or consume any other livestock product.
But every once in a while I forget the fractal nature of the horrors we inflict on any animal that is unlucky enough to get caught up in our agricultural industry.
Usually they arrive every three weeks like clockwork,” she said Wednesday. “And out of 100 birds you may have one or two that die in shipping.
The wrongness of what's happening here is not just that the Post Office is experiencing unusual delays. Even the normal state of affairs shows a grotesque indifference to life.