Massacre in the Chicken Coup

We round the corner of the high powered tunnel, treading towards the laying hens. They keep two coups of chickens, one must be like austhwitz for birds. The other, the one for the current, egg-laying chickens, is a lot roomier. That's where we were headed --- to feed the birds and collect the eggs.



The first thing we saw was the body of the mangled rooster. They've got to put one rooster in there with the egg-heads.



It's head was crushed and one of it's legs was torn asunder. As we get closer more corpses, those of hens, become visible. There were 3 dead in total, 2 missing, and, upon further investigating, 1 which was alive, but fatally wounded. It was in need of a mercy killing, but where or not this will be done will have to be the subject of another Flog Entry.



Several looked as if they had escaped the chomping of jaws by their tail feathers.



The rooster seemed to have done its job though. While the hen corpses were on the far side of the enclosure, the rooster's body had been half pulled through the electric fence. The fence itself was knocked aside, the roosters laying at the point of incursion. It had died protecting the rest of the birds.

I asked what could have done this. Domesticated dogs is the most likely answer, I learned. The wild animals (cayotes, foxes, birds of prey) generally take their kills back to their dens. Only dogs, corrupted by the violence of men, would kill 3 or 4 birds, and only take a bite or two of each. This was a violent act among farm animals and pets. A war among the domesticated, a war among the slaves of man.