The Bloody Truth About Raising City Chickens
Urban farming has become an urban farming movement. The New York Times ran a piece about the expanding world of urban farming, which is taking root in abandoned lots, backyards, deserted factories, and schoolyards from Detroit to West Oakland. The article focused on growing vegetables, such as young spinach and tomatoes.
But many of these hip, young, smart revolutionary farmers tend not only basil and marigolds, but also our feathery friends. Slate contributor L.E. Leone shares her experiences with urban chicken farming and points to a pathological avoidance of talking about blood, even on sites like thecitychicken.com. Workshops and classes on chicken farming often omit instruction and discussion about the grand finale: the slaughter.
The modern, expected reaction is to be deeply grossed out by all the blood, guts, and death. It doesn't quite fit with the super-enlightened, super-green aesthetic to take unabashed delight, as Leone does, in butchery. Not that it's easy, she says, to "kill what I love." Nonetheless, the slaughter is "the most satisfying part." She explains:
I'll own it: There's a part of me that likes to kill. When I do what I do with a hatchet and a chicken, I feel like crap, and I feel like God. I feel alive and in love and closer than ever to death. So I guess that is, for me, mixed feelings, yes. And the mix itself is welcome and intensely gratifying. In fact, it's almost too much. Too swirly, too soupy. I can tell you that the part of this swirl which seems "good," as opposed to "evil," has absolutely nothing to do with foiling the chicken industry or saving the environment or taking personal responsibility for my role in the food chain. It has to do with getting a little bit bloody and gross, like the complicated, hungry animal that I am.
It's almost enough to make me want to slaughter a chicken. Almost.
Previously
Who Wants to Raise City Chickens With Me?
Support For Urban Farming Grows
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8 Comments:
"The modern, expected reaction is to be deeply grossed out by all the blood, guts, and death. It doesn't quite fit with the super-enlightened, super-green aesthetic to take unabashed delight, as Leone does, in butchery. Not that it's easy, she says, to "kill what I love." Nonetheless, the slaughter is "the most satisfying part." She explains:
I'll own it: There's a part of me that likes to kill. When I do what I do with a hatchet and a chicken, I feel like crap, and I feel like God. I feel alive and in love and closer than ever to death. So I guess that is, for me, mixed feelings, yes. And the mix itself is welcome and intensely gratifying. In fact, it's almost too much. Too swirly, too soupy. I can tell you that the part of this swirl which seems "good," as opposed to "evil," has absolutely nothing to do with foiling the chicken industry or saving the environment or taking personal responsibility for my role in the food chain. It has to do with getting a little bit bloody and gross, like the complicated, hungry animal that I am.
It's almost enough to make me want to slaughter a chicken. Almost."
No offense, but that is just disgusting. Ugh.
Brownie at 8:25PM on 06/04/08
um... yeah.... OK.
Me thinks she's a bit TOO in touch with her so-called "hungry animal" side.
And besides -- the last time I checked, animals don't keep other animals in tiny cages and pens where they can barely move, in essence torturing them before killing them. Only humans do that.
Maybe if Miss L.E. Leone was out in the wild, tracking and hunting animals, and killing them to survive, for food, with her bare hands, I could buy the "hungry animal" routine.
But as it stands - She just sounds like a crazed chicken killer to me. (yes, I admit that description sounds goofy) Her admitted feelings of being "God" have gotten carried away.
In my opinion. :)
FastFoodCritic at 9:23PM on 06/04/08
The municipality in which I dwell allows chickens for eggs but prohibits their slaughter for meat. It's a waste if you ask me.
ShadyCharacter at 8:35AM on 06/05/08
I knew some people that had a chicken in a Manhattan apartment but it was just an odd pet.
bobbob at 10:53AM on 06/05/08
To each, her own. Not everyone is able to articulate their darker thoughts, but I'm pretty sure we all have them.
Kerosena at 11:06AM on 06/05/08
yeah, this makes for good neighbors. a few years ago a neighbor of mine in brooklyn (half a block away) decided that it would be a good idea to keep a rooster in the yard. it was a real pleasure to be crowed awake at 5am every morning. i'm sure hens would be better but i think even that is a little over the top, noise-wise (not to mention smell). in the country people tend to have their houses a little further than 20 feet from the chicken coop. i can understand the back to nature appeal but come on, have some respect for your neighbors and stick to plants if you live in an urban area.
sloppy at 12:30PM on 06/05/08
Keeping chickens....dirty, unbelievably smelly and, what do you do with all that chicken waste?
And then there's the slaughtering....blood, guts, feathers...yeesh!
cher128 at 9:40AM on 06/06/08
"Slate contributor L.E. Leone shares her experiences with urban chicken farming and points to a pathological avoidance of talking about blood, even on sites like thecitychicken.com. "
Hey! That's me! I author that site, TheCityChicken.com. Thanks for reminding me that I have pretty much left out "how to dispatch with a chicken" in my FAQ. So yeah, I didn't so much "pathologically avoid" but more like "kinda forgot" to put stuff about killing chickens on my site TheCityChicken.com. I'll get right on it. Thank goodness I've only had to euthanize three chickens in the past fourteen years.
~~Katy Skinner
thecitychicken at 3:00AM on 12/11/08