HOLD THE PRESSES: Duane Urch is Done?!/Future of American Purebred Poultry

[Bullitt]

The pet movement will reclassify chickens and bring restrictions and animal rights groups into all our backyards. Their will be licenses and permits. There will be a cry to quit eating your pets. And breeding will began to be frowned on and groups will want everything to be desexed.

That makes sense. People would frown on those who ate their dogs and cats, because they are seen as pets. Many people see chickens as pets and not livestock.

I get enjoyment out of watching chickens, but I see them as livestock.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

That makes sense. People would frown on those who ate their dogs and cats, because they are seen as pets. Many people see chickens as pets and not livestock.

But if those people are not now and never will be breeding at all, how is it part of the current conversation.

I mean... did the potbelly pig movement get people all scared that someday nobody would be able to have anything but pet pigs? Do Easter bunnies prevent meat and show rabbit breeders from doing their thing? Nope. And people have been keeping pet rabbits for a WHILE. (Beatrix Potter, anyone?)

IMO these things can probably coexist just fine. Separate worlds.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Are you able to verify the truth of what you pulled from Facebook not all is fact based have you asked the person if they retired or been able to verify the statements made at all

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Joseph Marquette, the author of the original piece I shared, is Yellow House Farm (who I can't seem to tag.)

Here is a BYC profile: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...rview-yellow-house-farm.940274/#post-14423078

Here is another interesting 2018 article by Mr. Marquette on poultry health and shows: http://nhpfa.com/index.php/poultry-articles/

If anyone could refer him to this thread, that would be awesome.

I can verify from the former director himself that the University of Arkansas poultry program is kaput, and as far as I can gather so is Duane Urch's Turnland Poultry. This is quite a blow as both were valuable stockpiles of Houdan genetics.

 

[Cyprus]

@Yellow House Farm

 

[The Moonshiner]

The main difference with the pot belly pig movement was that it was the PB pig movement not an all pig movement.
PBs were a pig meant to be eaten but most don't consider them as a meat pig now. Although that movement didn't change the views on pigs as a whole it sure change the views of pot bellies.

The way the backyard chicken owners that aren't breeding is part of the conversation is that if they change the view of chickens to being pets instead of livestock then chicken breeding will go the way of dog breeding and dog owning in general.
Remember I'm from Missouri one if not the all time puppy mill state.
Dog breeding has really become frowned on here. Dog breeders have to follow strict regulations here for the welfare of dogs. There were lots of breeders that were always doing things with their dogs welfare in mind but the general publics opinion in dog breeders in any manner has changed so drastically that most that were doing things right got out of it all together.
If the general public decides that chicken breeders are nothing more then "backyard breeders" as dog breeders have become them many will discontinue raising birds.
If the general public wants to start pushing for chickens rights then welfare groups will lobby for regulations on how you keep your breeding birds. They will tell you how you must maintain your flock which will include a numbers cap. And like dog breeders of old breeders won't be able to produce the numbers that is needed to continue to cull and still maintain the quanity of quality offspring to move generations forward.
Rabbits are a good example of how it can be both ways and continue. Hopefully chickens at worse will get to that point.
I don't think rabbits ever had the push to be strikly pets as the chickens are having right now.
You mentioned Easter bunnies. Right now in my area at Easter time you still see Easter bunnies pop up in some feed stores etc but at Easter time Easter chicks are in every feed store.
I just see chickens as pets is starting the poultry hobby down a slippery slope that most don't realize.

 

[Bullitt]

I wrote a research paper about urban chicken keeping, and the research I found to use as my support backs up my claims that urban chicken husbandry is a harmful practice typically done by uneducated people.

Are you referring to just the keeping of urban chickens, or are you referring to those urban chicken keepers who are breeding their chickens?

I do not see the harm of someone who wants to have a chicken flock in an urban or suburban area for eggs and/or meat.

 

[Bullitt]

But if those people are not now and never will be breeding at all, how is it part of the current conversation.

I mean... did the potbelly pig movement get people all scared that someday nobody would be able to have anything but pet pigs? Do Easter bunnies prevent meat and show rabbit breeders from doing their thing? Nope. And people have been keeping pet rabbits for a WHILE. (Beatrix Potter, anyone?)

IMO these things can probably coexist just fine. Separate worlds.

I do not think we need to go screaming into the night. The point was that backyard chicken keeping is becoming popular and more and more people see chickens as pets and not food, so there will be more people wanting to classify them as pets and not to be eaten. I have to admit I would be uncomfortable if I had a neighbor who was raising dogs and eating them. It is a cultural thing.

I do not have a great fear about chickens being seen as purely pets anytime soon, but I could foresee a time when this could happen.

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

I just don't see it that way and I don't think it's really relevant to the particular conversation at hand. They've been selling dyed easter chicks as long as they've been selling easter bunnies. They're terrible pets. Everyone I know that sells Easter rabbits sells them with an unconditional return policy and has a quarantine area set aside to fatten them up for the freezer once they come back after being fed on someone else's dime for a couple months.

Most people keeping poultry as pets are keeping "fancy" and bantam breeds, so it is indeed very similar to PB pigs... which are still pigs and are still eaten regularly around here.

But, again. That's a totally different conversation perhaps worthy of another thread entirely.

 

[Cyprus]

I doubt chickens will forever be seen as only pets sometime in the future, this country practically lives off fried chicken.