# Unwanted Chickens?



## Missouri314 (Jan 31, 2013)

Has anyone seen the news lately. It seems almost every week I see another headline about Animal Shelters being over run with back yard chickens that no longer lay eggs and roosters that someone thought were hens. Some cities are calling for a ban on back yard chickens. It seems there should be a little more thought put in to owning chickens. Or at least a way to hook up these unwanted chickens with farmers who can use them. Just a thought. Some irresponsible owners giving the rest of us a bad name.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

The same is true about dogs and cats. All of my dogs and cats were dumped. The local shelters were full before the financial crash which just meant more puppies and kittens were dumped on the sides of roads when some unthinking owner didn't want them any more.


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## Missouri314 (Jan 31, 2013)

*So true!*

I thought the same things. They have always been "over run" with unwanted dogs and cats, thats why they are in business to begin with.


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## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

But not at the levels we've been seeing the past then years. Its exploded. But if you approach an owner about spaying and neutering to prevent dumped puppies and kittens they get all wound up about how its going to ruin the animal. My own husband was that way with our Redbone Hound that was never going to be used for breeding. I forced the issue, the dog was fixed and was still the hunting maniac he was before the surgery. He didn't gain weight until arthritis set in and he could no longer go like he once did.


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## Shann0 (Sep 19, 2013)

I volunteer at a local shelter and it just amazes me on a daily basis how stupid people can be. It's not that they are uninformed, it's that they actually are stupid. "I don't want to fix my dog because I might breed it someday" blah blah. At the vet clinic I work at we were fostering a mother pitbull and her 8 puppies that had been dumped at a pharmacy during a horrible rain storm. We were giving the puppies away with all of their vaccines and neutered/spayed at no cost to the person that took them. I can't tell y'all how many people turned it down because the pits were going to be fixed meaning they would not be able to breed them. It was very sad. The shelter is full of unwanted pits that people lost control of or just plain didn't want any more. I can count the number that passed the temperament test on one hand. Because of their previous owners. It makes me very, very sad. Pits are a huge thing in my area.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

Our local animal control takes in unwanted chickens and roosters. I asked them once how much it cost to adopt a few and they told me $20 each. No way am I paying $20 per chicken. That is so wrong for them to do that. So then I decided to ask the question of what do they do when no one takes them in. The reply was that they gassed them then burned them up. Why oh why would they not cull them and give them to a homeless shelter??? Wouldn't it be better to give them to someone that would eat them, keep them as pet, or to cull them at the shelter and then give away the meat to the poor??? Imagine the cost for them to gas them then to have to incinerate the bodies??? All of this is from tax payer money since it is a county owned shelter.

As for pit bulls, the local shelters are full of them. Some of our cities and towns have now outlawed them, however every single shelter is full of pit bulls or pit mix. I tried to adopt a puppy a few years ago and every one of them had pit. I declined. I refuse to have a pit around. My daughter was attacked by one when she was 3 and is scared to death of them. I think if people want pit bulls there needs to be a law that they be spayed or neutered. Years ago when you went to a shelter you found collie shepard mixes ( To me one of the best mixes) every time, now you find pit mixes at all the shelters.


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## matt_kas (Mar 11, 2013)

hildar said:


> Our local animal control takes in unwanted chickens and roosters. I asked them once how much it cost to adopt a few and they told me $20 each. No way am I paying $20 per chicken. That is so wrong for them to do that. So then I decided to ask the question of what do they do when no one takes them in. The reply was that they gassed them then burned them up. Why oh why would they not cull them and give them to a homeless shelter??? Wouldn't it be better to give them to someone that would eat them, keep them as pet, or to cull them at the shelter and then give away the meat to the poor??? Imagine the cost for them to gas them then to have to incinerate the bodies??? All of this is from tax payer money since it is a county owned shelter. As for pit bulls, the local shelters are full of them. Some of our cities and towns have now outlawed them, however every single shelter is full of pit bulls or pit mix. I tried to adopt a puppy a few years ago and every one of them had pit. I declined. I refuse to have a pit around. My daughter was attacked by one when she was 3 and is scared to death of them. I think if people want pit bulls there needs to be a law that they be spayed or neutered. Years ago when you went to a shelter you found collie shepard mixes ( To me one of the best mixes) every time, now you find pit mixes at all the shelters.


That's terrible!! Why would they incinerate the chickens?! They have a life too, I agree with culling them and giving the meat to the homeless. But burning them is inhumane and a waste too!


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

matt_kas said:


> That's terrible!! Why would they incinerate the chickens?! They have a life too, I agree with culling them and giving the meat to the homeless. But burning them is inhumane and a waste too!


they do gas them first to kill them like they do with the dogs and cats. However it's a waste of good meat. If they would just cull them and give the meat to the homeless, or to the poor folks it would be far better for all. They do the same thing with other farm animals there if no one adopts them in 10 days they gas and then incinerate them. Seems to me that many could use that meat.


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## nj2wv (Aug 27, 2013)

I think they definitely need to change their policy on farm animals. So many hungry people in their community could have been fed by those animals. Maybe it has to do with sanitary food regulations. If that is the case then maybe sell them for a lower cost. Who would pay that much for a chicken that you could buy cheaper elsewhere. I even think most animal shelters have also overpriced dog and cat adoption fees so high that it inhibits adoption and allows for more euthenization.


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