# Are all chicken farmers twisted? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 12, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964 "2011-12-12T22:50:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Peeta\_Mellark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Peeta\_Mellark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peeta_Mellark)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/21 "2011-12-13T00:04:23Z")
I’ve never enjoyed killing animals, but it is what it is. When you’re raising animals for meat, they stop being “animals” to you in the same way that non-meat animals are. Sure, they’re alive and they have their own personalities, but you don’t feel bad about them dying. I’m not really sure of how to explain the mindset to someone who doesn’t get it. I grew up listening to many people that I wouldn’t accuse of sociopathy laughing and telling various stories about killing animals. You compartmentalize and find ways to deal with it. Some do it by getting all gleeful. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/22 "2011-12-13T00:08:32Z")
> [@Dennis\_Arthur\_PERRETT](#): > > Im proud of my heritage. Why do you answer people with silly questions… > [@Dennis\_Arthur\_PERRETT](#): > > No, just proud of my heritage. They didn’t do much or were known for anything important, just proud of them anyway… Heinrich Himmler was also extremely proud of his heritage, as well as very proud of the tiny tattoo he had of a topless Mary Todd Lincoln on his ample kiester… (Mrs. Lincoln was depicted at an Amish butter churn, a-churn, churn churning away.) ---
**Author:** ![Dennis\_Arthur\_PERRETT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@Dennis\_Arthur\_PERRETT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dennis_Arthur_PERRETT)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/23 "2011-12-13T00:09:35Z")
Gleeful yes, Gleeful… ---
**Author:** ![Dennis\_Arthur\_PERRETT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@Dennis\_Arthur\_PERRETT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dennis_Arthur_PERRETT)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/24 "2011-12-13T00:14:47Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > Heinrich Himmler was also extremely proud of his heritage, as well as very proud of the tiny tattoo he had of a topless Mary Todd Lincoln on his ample kiester… > > (Mrs. Lincoln was depicted at an Amish butter churn, a-churn, churn churning away.) Was Heinrich Himmler proud of his heritage or affected by his heritage I wonder.? You are a clever person combining the two strains of thought and creating something completely different. Well done, Monty Python would be astounded. You have made my day. Thankyou. ---
**Author:** ![Dennis\_Arthur\_PERRETT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3e96dc/32.png) [@Dennis\_Arthur\_PERRETT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dennis_Arthur_PERRETT)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/25 "2011-12-13T00:16:22Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > How would a computer game put food on the table, buy chicken feed, and pay off the mortgage? They’re not doing this to get their jollies; they’re doing it because it’s their _job_. This is how the real world works, and those of us who spend all our time on computer games are too insulated from that fact, and need a reminder. Could have done this kid some good I feel… ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/26 "2011-12-13T00:41:19Z")
I would find that boy’s behavior very disturbing as well. I believe that teaching children empathy for other creatures is an important part of raising a decent human being. Even if an animal has to be killed, it does seem wrong to me to take pleasure in killing it. (I am a vegetarian myself, but for milk, eggs, and for the meat that my SO eats, I support farmers who raise their animals humanely.) ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/27 "2011-12-13T00:51:42Z")
> [@Dennis\_Arthur\_PERRETT](#): > > Sorry Mate. No offense. Defensive by nature. None taken. You see my point, though; **Sunspace** does a pretty good job summarizing my own findings. Now, this is where I get weird: I kinda suspected you might get defensive, not because of any of your qualities (I don’t know you) but because of the question. This seems to be a question people don’t want to answer, or don’t have an answer to. Some people put brand names in all-caps (“I was driving my FORD when a HONDA pulled out…”), and they don’t tend to have a reason, either. They just clam up or go on the defensive when asked. It isn’t like it’s a personal question. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/28 "2011-12-13T01:42:13Z")
> [@Dennis\_Arthur\_PERRETT](#): > > Yeah, over reaction on my part I know, but the kids eagerness was a surprise. Do you have kids? Before they become teens, they can be incredibly eager about doing stuff, particularly stuff that adults do but (until recently) they could not. My boys will fight over who gets to turn on a light switch, or who gets to use a broom to do some sweeping. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/29 "2011-12-13T01:45:20Z")
> [@](#): > > Having raised chickens, I can attest that they are the dumbest creatures on God’s Green Earth. I take it that you’ve never raised, or even been around, domestic turkeys, then. I’ve been around chickens, and I’ve been around turkeys. I used to take care of the poultry when the hobby farmers next door went on vacations. Chickens are DUMB. Turkeys are DUMB, in letters an inch high and in purple glitter. ---
**Author:** ![papergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/30 "2011-12-13T02:07:00Z")
I can understand the OP’s reaction. I’m all for raising animals for food (as humanely as possible), and of course I’d rather see an animal killed quickly and humanely as these animals appear to be. It’s not an issue of whether it should or shouldn’t be done. But it does weird me out to see someone _enjoy_ it. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/31 "2011-12-13T03:13:18Z")
The kid might be getting some pleasure out of disposing of the chook now at 12, but it’s not necessarily a thrill-kill thing. At 12, especially in a rural farming environment, the kid would be teetering on the fine line between being a regular child and taking on more adult responsibilities. Being able to join in with the adults as a peer (however temporarily) to engage in the killings just might have been an incredible ego boost, and seemed like all his Christmases had come at once. Of course, YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/32 "2011-12-13T03:44:01Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > I haven’t seen it much outside of genealogy sites. It’s not at all uncommon in European correspondence, especially that originating from French people. I saw it all the time when I worked for Eurocopter about a decade ago. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/33 "2011-12-13T04:12:09Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Capitalizing the family name is a style I’ve seen in Europe, mostly France. It also helps clarify which names are the family names if you’re dealing with an international group where some people put the family name first (TEZUKA Osamu; Japanese) and some put it last (Marie-Joëlle CLAROF; France). I hang with a bunch of europeans in a few MMORPGs, I see the surname in caps fairly frequently, especially when you consider I hang with Romanians and other previously comblock countries, where the surname comes first, like [to make up a name] PETRESCU Vlad Mihai, while I do know how the surname comes first in this type of case, many Americans would’t =) > [@Princhester](#): > > Do you have kids? Before they become teens, they can be incredibly eager about doing stuff, particularly stuff that adults do but (until recently) they could not. My boys will fight over who gets to turn on a light switch, or who gets to use a broom to do some sweeping. My god daughters [some of them at least] are still of the age that helping in the kitchen by peeling veggies is a thrill, or being tasked to go and feed the chickens, or get the eggs from the nest box. It is a _responsibility_, they aren’t being treated like kids =) > [@kambuckta](#): > > The kid might be getting some pleasure out of disposing of the chook now at 12, but it’s not necessarily a thrill-kill thing. As others say, he is probably thrilled at being tasked to do something, he isn’t being treated like a kid. > > At 12, especially in a rural farming environment, the kid would be teetering on the fine line between being a regular child and taking on more adult responsibilities. Being able to join in with the adults as a peer (however temporarily) to engage in the killings just might have been an incredible ego boost, and seemed like all his Christmases had come at once. > > Of course, YMMV. LOL, it does get boring, he will not be so thrilled next summer about having to deal with the chickens. Farming is not for the faint of heart. A Danish buddy of mine worked for years on a pig breeding farm. In addition to lots of pig shit, you have to deal with such fun tasks as killing pigs that have accidentally eaten meat and now has a taste for it. Pigs are amazingly happy to become cannibals. Hell, there have been at least 2 American murderers and one Canadian that has specifically used pigs to deal with murder victims bodies. If you have a cannibal pig, it will kill and eat piglets, or will actually start looking at the people working there as possible snacks. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![BeaMyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@BeaMyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeaMyra)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/34 "2011-12-13T07:08:37Z")
I think it’s how you view things. My son used to love to kill flies. He’d even take his precious ice cream bar and drip some on the sidewalk to attract flies, where he’s smack them dead with a flyswatter. He is 17 and so far isn’t a serial killer. I couldn’t kill a chicken, but I have no problem killing a bug. So if you grow up and to you, chickens are in the same category of life as bugs, after all aren’t bugs living things? You would have no issues with killing a chicken. I am not a farmer but I have spent a few summers in my youth on my uncle’s farm and I would say a turkey is much dumber than a chicken. After all chickens can catch and eat mice. But those turkeys we had were as thick as mud ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/35 "2011-12-13T09:52:23Z")
> [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](#): > > FWIW, Hermann Goering wasn’t a chicken farmer, that was Heinrich Himmler. No no no, it wasn’t Reichsführer Himmler who was the chicken farmer, it was Colonel Sanders. ---
**Author:** ![Ashes\_Ashes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/db5fbb/32.png) [@Ashes\_Ashes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashes_Ashes)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/36 "2011-12-13T13:06:16Z")
Growing up, we raised chickens, about two-fifty at a time. It was my job to take care of them, and after a while, even my infamously super squishy heart viewed them pretty much as units. Something to clean up after, not a pet, in any way, shape or form. There’s just not enough _there_, there. That said; I helped with all aspects of butchering, but Dad did the deed itself since it was more efficient for our set-up. Domesticated turkeys and chickens are dumb, often mean, and filthy if you don’t take good care of them. This thinking is magnified if you have large groups of them. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/37 "2011-12-13T13:19:09Z")
Somebody could do an investigation: Serial Killers; serial killers who worked in agribusiness; agribusiness by species (poultry, swine, cattle) If and when I become a serial killer, I’d gravitate to the higher animals: something that will look me in the eye with terror, as if to ask “why are you doing this to me?” _“Because I’m God! That’s why!”_ (this just doesn’t have the same ring when you’re spraying for roaches in an Orkin uniform) If and when I become an indigent senior citizen, I’d be more wary of a caretaker who’d worked for the humane society than on a poultry farm. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/38 "2011-12-13T13:42:46Z")
> [@Suil\_Dubh](#): > > No no no, it wasn’t Reichsführer Himmler who was the chicken farmer, it was Colonel Sanders. Do you know who ELSE wrang chickens necks? Pee Wee Herman. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/39 "2011-12-13T15:39:37Z")
> [@Ashes\_Ashes](#): > > Growing up, we raised chickens, about two-fifty at a time. It was my job to take care of them, and after a while, even my infamously super squishy heart viewed them pretty much as units. > > Something to clean up after, not a pet, in any way, shape or form. There’s just not enough _there_, there. That said; I helped with all aspects of butchering, but Dad did the deed itself since it was more efficient for our set-up. > > Domesticated turkeys and chickens are dumb, often mean, and filthy if you don’t take good care of them. This thinking is magnified if you have large groups of them. Same here. To my family, killing a chicken wasn’t much different from picking an ear of corn; they’re a crop to be harvested. We didn’t do the “twist”, though; it’s pretty easy to tuck both wings and feet up in one hand, and then you just lay it out on the chopping block. A quick whack with the hatchet, and then toss it aside to bleed out until it stops moving. Chickens are so dumb they don’t even know when they’re dead. ---
**Author:** ![Peeta\_Mellark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Peeta\_Mellark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peeta_Mellark)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964/40 "2011-12-13T16:05:16Z")
> [@Ashes\_Ashes](#): > > Domesticated turkeys and chickens are dumb, often mean, and filthy if you don’t take good care of them. This thinking is magnified if you have large groups of them. I must defend the noble chicken to some degree. This is true of the majority of chickens bred these days, but there are still brighter heritage breeds out there. Some are even bright enough to survive as [feral](http://www.nola.com/pets/index.ssf/2011/04/feral_chickens_have_proliferat.html). But it’s true that the majority of chickens intended for large farming operations wouldn’t be able to survive a few weeks without constant human intervention, let alone form colonies that last for years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-all-chicken-farmers-twisted/605964.md?page=3)