Baby Broiler Roo and Turkey
This is baby broiler roo and turkey cuddled up together this afternoon in the sunshine. See how baby broiler sleeps? He has to lay on his side to breathe well. This is because broilers are genetically modified to have extra meat. A lot of extra meat. So much extra meat that they are unable to walk well and have trouble breathing. Here’s a little info on broiler chickens from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broiler See the part about how they don’t have feathers?
Broiler chickens have been genetically modified by humans to be insanely larger than normal. I would argue they are inhumanely larger. Frankly, we have bred suffering into them. They are born, and they grow so fast that within days they are unable to stand well. Then they start having trouble laying down comfortably and sitting normally. Eventually they have trouble breathing and they overheat really easily. They’re slowly suffocating in their own flesh. In a factory farm, they’re killed for meat then. But this baby broiler will likely live a few months and then need to be humanely euthanized when he is too uncomfortable to live. Here’s a link to the history of the genetic mutations we’ve made to these little babies from the much-celebrated 50th anniversary of the broiler chicken:
I’m not trying to bum anybody out, but this broiler baby is a living, breathing sweet baby life. He is a feeling, talking, emotional character who loves to snuggle with his turkey. And look what we’ve done to him. It makes me so sad. But my sadness is nothing compared to how it must be to LIVE as a broiler chicken.
In other news, baby turkey is becoming a little chicken stalker. She sneaks up on them and tries to pick fights with them. Baby turkey needs to learn to stay out of their way.
Here is a video of turkey settling down for a nap on my lap. Turkey loves to snuggle and talk. “Whoop? Whoop? Fsha fa fa.” I am learning a lot of new turkey words. We’re looking for a forever sanctuary for turkey that has other turkeys. That would be ideal. Baby broiler roo is not going to have a long life, but turkey could do well with other turkeys. We’ll keep you posted when we know more. Both of them are fosters here, and as you know, we cannot keep them all… even though we love them all dearly.
NOTE: I’m not sure on the gender of either baby turkey or baby broiler yet, but my guess is that turkey is a girl and broiler is a boy. So we’ll correct that later if we’re wrong.
Quacks and clucks,
Tiff and the flock (and furball Simon)
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