Hugh's Chicken Run (Merged Discussion)

angelatgraceland

For anyone who would like to join this-to try to stop the farming of battery hens etc please follow the link:
http://www.chickenout.tv/

Apologies if it has been posted elsewhere but this is a really worthwhile change we need to make. As seen in River Cottage.

Fedz

No disrespect but, I've been around a good few years and 20+ yrs ago I was campaigning with our local animal rights group to stop/change battery farming ... still the same things happen today ...

The best way to change things is time and consumer power ... doesn't matter how many signatures you gather, protests you march on to raise awareness ... people have known for decades about the battery system from others, shock newspaper articles, shock/ing TV footage/programmes ...

angelatgraceland

If you see the site-that is exactly the aim! Vote w ith your feet! I totally agree with what you say by the way-but this particular campaign could just stand a chance if we are all willing to help it along.

angelatgraceland

trying-very-trying wrote: »

Yeah, I got that, explaining about al the different eggs and stating that they will stop using eggs from caged chickens by the year 2010.

Now if everyone could be convinced right now-this week-they would have to change that to 2008!
It is only because people keep buying them that this goes on! I was in Tesco last week and both myself and some other customers were scouring the shelves for free range( I listen in on other customers)not one in sight! They are either not giving us the choice-or they are sold out!
I plan that we will keep our own chickens in the garden so solving our problems. Ive explained to my kids that it is kinder to keep a hen for-however long-well cared for, and then eat it, than it is to at the shop-bought variety who only survive about 5 weeks and have no life at all. I see them turning veggy when it comes to the crunch but its called "facing the facts".
The woman on the programme who said it was ok because the chickens didnt know anybetter-Id love to suggest her kids were kept on a patch too small to move on or she live in one beroom with her total family forever more etc etc. Her comments angered me! Total selfishness!
Regarding throwing half the chicken away I must remind people of another point(no Im not a veggy but im a realist) that is half a body-half a life you are throwing away if you do this. We buy a slaughtered animal and dont have the decency to even eat this poor creature which was sacrificed? So it died for nothing? Makes you think of the supermarket waste too! No Im not religious-but it is wrong! If we want to eat meat and that means we have to kill, let us do it with humanity and respect and please-dont disrespect it by binning it afterwards!

boredofbeingathome

It's interesting since the programme aired how little free range chickens are on offer, i used to be able to find them ok, but after a trip in town today i couldn't get one- will try on market tomorrow.

angelatgraceland

Ive just h ad 2 replies back from Tesco-same as were pasted on here earlier-bog standard replies to the petition but at least they are prepared to take part in this and to look at the numbers of people who want things changed. Perhaps more of us should seriously think about keeping chickens! It would help a little. All I can do meanwhile unless I can find freerange is either o buy none or Willow farm ones or equivilant. At least, by buying these we are taking a step in the right direction and the sales of the battery hens will be reduced. Its got to be voting with our feet-no legislation is going to change this quickly enough and if we dont vote with our feet, the sheer volume of sales of batteryhens will suggest that we do not have our hert in it.

margaretclare

Hi, just had this email from Hugh - he says free-range chickens are 'flying off the shelves' (I hope not literally!!!) so maybe that's why you can't find any.

"Dear Chicken Out Supporter,
Thanks so much for signing the pledge, and for offering to get more involved in the campaign.
The response so far has been absolutely fantastic. Click here to see the latest good news.
Now the time has come to take our campaign to the next level, and make sure that the Free Range Fever currently sweeping the nation turns into a lasting commitment from consumers, retailers and suppliers, to change the way that Britain produces chicken. In other words, I still need your help!
There are a number of things I’d like you to do in the coming weeks that I’m convinced will make a real difference to the lasting effect of the campaign, and therefore to the lives of British chickens. You’ll be hearing from me again very soon about these ideas for the campaign, but meanwhile here’s the very first free range challenge! The sooner you can get involved the better – why not get out and have a go this weekend?
Free Range Challenge no 1: Snap your local supermarket!
Whilst Sainsbury’s and Waitrose have reported a massive effect of our programmes and campaign on their free range chicken sales, certain other supermarkets have claimed that we haven’t made much impact on the demand for free range chicken. Yet from all over the country we’re hearing reports that free range chicken is flying off the shelves, wherever it is on sale. If it really is the case that the supermarkets are struggling to supply the increased demand then that’s fantastic – it proves that when consumers are armed the facts they will shop with their conscience. And that is great news for chickens, as supermarkets will ask their suppliers to invest in new free range farms to meet the increased demand.
But we need proof! We need YOU to show us the evidence that Britain really has got Free Range Fever. So when you are next in your local supermarket, please take a picture of their free range poultry section and send it to us. A still or a video clip from your mobile phone will be fine. A digital snap or clip from a video camera is even better. Please also take a close up of any signs explaining why they are out of stock. And then send your shots over to us via email to: campaign@chickenout.tv. And don’t forget to tell us who you are, and where and when your pictures were taken.
If you’d like to include a short video clip of yourself or a friend explaining why you/they support the campaign, and/or what effect you think we’re having on your local chicken outlets, that would be great too.
We’ll put the best shots and clips up on the Chicken Out! website, and some of them may even feature later in the year – with your permission of course - in our follow up programme about the campaign.
Thanks and happy snapping. I’ll be in touch again VERY soon,
All the best
H ugh"

Have a look on the BigBarn site: www.bigbarn.co.uk - if you input your postcode you can find local suppliers.

HTH

Margaret

linzibean

I got that email too - just a bti worried that I will get told off for taking photos in the supermarket!! I'll have to do it all sneaky like

Kimitatsu

I think thats a brilliant idea! As someone who has only bought free range or organic chickens for the last 10 years I am feeling the pinch now that everyone else has got in on the act!!!

However in the supermarkets defence re the eggs this is a bad time for eggs, it has been a wet cold dark winter and as someone who has 14 chickens eating me out of house and home, I can tell you they are all looking forward to the warm weather and 17 hours of daylight which they need to be laying again! So they may not be completely wrong in that they have sold out - the farm down the road from me which has 1000 ex battery hens now free range is telling me the same, so have a little patience people and look forward to the sunshine! It may pay to look for a local producer rather than a supermarket............

competitionscafe

linzibean wrote: »

I got that email too - just a bti worried that I will get told off for taking photos in the supermarket!! I'll have to do it all sneaky like

Yes, I might get thrown out of Tescos for doing this but will give it a go