Vegetarian Star

The Social Network

The Social Network has a scene where Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin‘s character feeds his pet chicken (they’re allowing these in dorm rooms these days?) chicken meat. In defense, Saverin yells, “Fish eat other fish!”

According to Cannibalism: Chicken Little Meets Hannibal Lecture written by members of a graduate Foraging Ecology Class at the University of Idaho and Washington State University under the direction of Drs. Karen Launchbaugh and Lisa Shipley, chickens rationale for eating chickens varies differently in the wild versus captivity. In the wild, the behavior is perceived as an adaptive function to increase fitness, eliminate competitors (yep, that’ll definitely do it) and providing nutrients. In captivity, however, it’s abnormal behavior that some have suggested is yet another problem of crowded farm conditions meant to churn out as much chicken product as possible at the animal’s expense.

Msucares.com, a site created by the Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station and the Mississippi State University Extension Service, says the issue begins as innocent “pecking” to establish the social order (pun intended) then escalates into pulling feathers and full blown vampire bites. Besides crowded conditions, bright lights and hot temperatures aggravate birds and drive them to increase this behavior. Nutritional deficiencies in methionine and salt drives a chickens’ craving for blood and feathers. And ladies, you thought your monthly “womanly” cravings led to some strange behavior.

Unfortunately, in the days of modern farming meant to spend the least amount of money and give animals the least amount of rights and comfort, a common technique to reduce pecking is beak trimming, expectantly causing acute and chronic pain and more negative behaviors in the animal.

The Cannibalism paper also suggest a new theory in cannibalism is that the chickens have less space to perform the natural behavior of foraging, and this is a strong driver of eating one another.

“Evidence suggests that laying hen chicks housed on a litter floor (wood-shavings) exhibit more ground pecking and less feather pecking than chicks housed on slats. In addition, if chicks are reared with access to novel materials that enhance foraging behavior, they exhibit fewer incidences of cannibalistic behavior later in life. Inclusion of materials such as long-cut or bundled straw and sand as foraging materials within a housing system during rearing, leads to a significant decrease in the incidence of cannibalism within a flock.”

Perhaps the requirement of including adequate conditions for foraging will someday be added to changes in animal welfare legislation to raise the standard for how animals reared for food use are treated.

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