Free Range Chickens or Are They?

I’m just disgusted watching this happy video about free range chickens

Some comments in the news report

  • “free to roam”
    • Reality: It’s a small dirt enclosure with no vegetation or grass. So they can walk around, But how much? Looks like cages in the background.
  • “fed ground-up leftovers from the kitchen”
    • WHAT is this? What food from what kitchen are the chickens eating? It’s not natural grassland food.
  • “we use a good grinder to grind up chicken leftovers and feed to chickens”
    • WHAT is this? Are they feeding chickens to chickens?

They don’t mention how many shots or hormones or whatever have been injected into the chickens or what additives added to food.

Maybe this news channel can also produce a news report on most chickens in Taiwan sitting 2 or 3 together in one small cage their entire life and can’t even turn around in the cage. I have videos and pictures and can show them huge farms with 3, 4, 5 levels of cramped cage houses full of the same if they need some help.

I just want more and more to avoid Taiwan meat and produce.

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Classic local ‘news’ report, a dozen unanswered questions at the end. I wonder if the source of the kitchen scraps is the government’s collected kitchen scraps program. If so, in effect they are saying these chickens are on par in quality with Taiwan pork.

I saw something similar playing on a loop in Wellcome/Carrefour. Not the same report, but my reaction was also “WTF?”. I was aware that labels like “cage free” are basically just marketing BS, but it’s really disheartening that people think this sort of thing is somehow normal, or even admirable. There’s no need for it. It’s perfectly possible to produce eggs, meat, and a whole bunch of other stuff with equal or superior efficiency, without doing horrible things to the chickens. But because governments subtly encourage the inefficient, cruel, chemical-fuelled methods, that’s what people end up doing.

A large part of the problem is politicians who really don’t have the time or the inclination to look into the details, and are easily impressed by Powerpoint presentations, people in white coats, and shiny stainless-steel gadgets.

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Chickens actually eat anything, granes, veggies, fruits, meat, fish (protein), insects. The cages are probably their laying cages, otherwise you have to look for the eggs.

You get good omega 3 fats in the eggs if they eat insects and weeds don’t you? Proper free range, not Taiwan free range.

A youth friend used to feed their chickens dead birds and mice.

Oh come on, it’s always good to give a species the same species to eat. Am I wrong?
I mean personally I love human flesh for food :slight_smile:
Oh maybe BSE has gotten me. I seem to not be able to remember.

However kitchen leftovers are perfectly fine for chicken I think. But yeah please, don’t feed chicken chicken leftovers. History has shown that for most species it’s not too healthy to eat it’s own kind.

And no - the way humans behave and eat - take medications and so on - I surely would not eat human meat. Even those caged chickens are likely healthier…

Yeah the usual advertising news.

But it’s true these chickens will be much better off than the ones caged 24/7. And their eggs should be much better quality.

The chicken leftovers was a bad translation . They just said they grind up kitchen leftovers to give to the chickens.

There will be some egg and chicken leftovers left in the regular food supply. They should be boiled up first.

Actually that’s still not a safe way to maintain the food supply (prion disease ) still but we know how it goes here.

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I feel very lucky to have access to what I think is free-range chicken eggs. But even these chickens are only running around for about 6 hours per day. But our friend loves his chickens so well taken care of. Big place to roam, extra grasses to eat beyond just chicken feed, clean enclosures. All look very healthy. This takes alot of effort on his part. We have another friend who raises chicken and feeds them very healthy food but they are still in pens. They just do not look as healthy.

And what is interesting is my first friend’s chickens are not afraid of people…you can pick them up and pet them with simply no reaction from the chickens. My other friend’s chickens are afraid of me getting close to them. Just an observation…

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Chicken is basically mini T rex anyways…

Not sure where you’re from, but that might qualify as free range where you’re from as well - those conditions easily exceeds USDA standards for free range chicken.

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Considering they’re one of the most brainless animals on the planet, chickens are surprisingly personable and like human company. My sister has always kept chickens and one of them in particular would be upset if he didn’t get picked up and fussed over at regular intervals. When we had chickens on my farm (they eventually got stolen by one of the ratbag neighbours) they would follow me around while I was working to see what I was up to. IMO, happy animals are likely to produce the best eggs.

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There’s the bare minimum for the label, but some producers go beyond. Some open their farms up to the public, these sort of things.

Chickens… the perfect pet animal, and you can eat it once you’re tired of it.

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There are different standards for keeping chickens.

Otherwise, egg farming in EU is classified into 4 categories: Organic (ecological), Free Range, Barn, and Cages. The mandatory labelling on the egg shells attributes a number (which is the first digit on the label) to each of these categories: 0 for Organic, 1 for Free Range, 2 for Barn and 3 for Cages.

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image

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That’s a good chicken story

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This is the main problem when it comes to egocentric animlas studying other animlas that they can barely communicate with. If i had 5 cents for every time a scientist, scholar or other such puba told me humans are the only species aware of their own “_____” (enter whatever self gratifying term here) i would be rich. The ego our species possesses literally blinds us. It is ABSURD to think other species (literally millions of species) are not aware and do not posses sentience and consciousness. To propose otherwise is the definition of retarded. Otherwise, the onus is on them to prove it…which no one has in the meaninful way. I have known arachnids with deeper moral thought processes than some humans. Literally. But there is that communication boundary that allows us to fool ourselves into thinking our shit dont stink.

@tango42 free range is more of a marketing gimmick. Essentially most places laws literally mean multiple birds can mingle without walls between them. As opposed to every single bird being walled in and separate (like solitary confinement in jail, but divided by 5 for space). In the industrial world free range means nothing morally other than a 0/10 rather than a -10/10. This is the issue as there exists non psychopathic free range but the term is the same and they get lumped into the psychotic farmers system of free range. the factory farmed free range stil has insanely dense population numbers. I have yet to see an “indoor” free facilty without dead birds on the ground. And some are quite diligently checked. Its a leading reason goose the last years has become more scarce in taiwan. Disease.

If anyone wants to truly make a difference we need to do it from a consumer level. As the consumer, buy from farmers that match your requirements (hopefully some form of morality is involved in said requirements). They exist. Support them ,they will grow and become more efficient so that prices arent so prohibitive a they are with tiny farms. If we the consumer just want chinese slave labor prices, the consumer gets exactly that said quality.

Waste less to save money, not torture more to save money. It is within almost everyones realm of possibilty to do this. We just need to lower our entitlement a tiny little bit and great things can happen quite easily and relatively fast!

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My son and his mate got a part time job at a chicken battery farm, to check out security.
They broke in one night stole 20 chickens to keep on their small holding - I swear these chickens knew they had been saved and followed my son around like he was their mum.

Sadly they both got a bit drunk one night forgot to lock henhose at night - Fox got em.

I guess they are relatively free ranged compared to these poor American chickens. The chicken farmers here in Taiwan also seem to be more free compared to their counter-parts in the US.