anon submission: I’m sorry about sending a submit anonymously instead of an ask, you have anon turned off. Which you’re totally allowed to do but I am deeply ashamed of asking this question and feel better doing so anonymously.
As someone who has chickens, I wanted to know what your opinion of this was and if you think it’s animal abuse?
A member of my family(member 1) has chickens, but he gets incredibly annoyed when they’re noisy (We really don’t live in an area where chickens should be. No land, just a backyard, so you can hear them in the house). It’s not just a simple “man I wish they’d be quiet” it’s a legit getting pissed off.
So he sprays them with the hose or chases them around the backyard with a rake in an attempt to make them be quiet. And it’s not like it’s a simple hose spraying (Like the equivalent of how you would spray a cat if they’re being naughty) it’s aggressively spraying/attempting to spray them or aggressively chasing them.
Me and another member(member 2) both agree that we don’t think that’s an okay thing to do, I brought it to the attention of another member of my family(member 3) and they said that member 1 told them that he read somewhere that you’re supposed to do that.
So I wanted your thoughts on this as someone who raises and owns chickens and other birds/animals?
jade: hi anon, uh, yeah, i think thats pretty crappy.
chickens are always going to make noise, thats just how they do. they’re social animals and built to communicate with each other, to share information about food or danger. they are never going to stop. some breeds and individuals are quieter than others, but to get a chicken and expect it to be quiet always is illogical and unreasonable. it’s like getting angry with a fish for needing to be in water. it’s an intrinsic part of them, and if you arent prepared to deal with it, then you shouldnt have them.
hosing them might shut them up briefly while they focus on running away, but you’re never going to train them out of a natural, inbuilt behaviour like that. and the stress of it is likely to affect their health, lifespan, egg production, hell, i wouldnt be surprised if being regularly stressed out while living in a smallish area contributed to them being noisier than usual. (it is possible to keep chickens in small yards, but you need to work harder to provide fresh greens, stimulation, cleanliness etc than you would if they had a larger area)
hosing them is utterly pointless and pretty cruel, even if it isnt a more ‘obvious’ abuse thing like inflicting pain. i would recommend you try to give them away or sell them to a person who can give them the care they need. or give away or sell your family member, but i think that one’s going to be harder to pull off, so, for the chickens’ sake, get them out of there
