Today I was listening to CBC radio, they were interviewing someone about their stand on the ethical treatment of farm animals traveling to the slaughter house.

It got me thinking about the treatment of our chickens by the occasional prowling, stray dog which happened upon our free ranging and forging egg layers.

Wally made a good choice when he bought leghorns because they were such great flyers. They didn’t take off like a duck, but they could launch themselves up five feet onto a tree limb then continue to hop climb as high as they wanted until they were safe.

I’d not had the occasion to watch them hop climb, but how else would they get into the high, thickly branched areas of the prune tree unless they hop climbed? The hop climbing theory developed when the newest hens were young and chose trees to roost in.

My guess is that instinct drove the young layers to tree roost. They always chose the lower growing Italian prune trees that lined the roadway which separated the hen house from the orchard.

Just before dark that urge to roost would hit and half a dozen would settle into the the leafy prune trees. We knew this was always a possibility so we would take a straw broom with us down to the chicken pen when we went to close the gates for the night for them.

When we checked the trees and saw white, because our leghorns were always white, then we stuck the broom into the tree which chased out the hens. They would squawk and flutter to the ground, beating a path towards the gate and hightail it into their house where the others were roosting.

Back to the chicken chasing dog events. When the chickens ran the dog chased. Some fled into the prune trees, but on occasion we found one across Park Rill on the far bank, a distance of some 60 feet, and the bird was sitting in a bushy tree.

I could imagine its flight. It had to be running for a takeoff. Once it launched there was nowhere to go except forward. Getting to that tree would have taken some effort for a goose sized body and half the wing span. When Wally went to retrieve it, he managed to grab it before it decided to try and fly back.

The problem with that kind of excitement was that the eggs those excited hens layed were blood spotted inside the shell. We always candled them to check for blood spots. We used those ourselves and sold the spot free ones to our customers.

To my recollection, the stray dogs did not catch any of our chickens. A hawk took our rooster when I was three years of age. I remember seeing the beast flapping on the ground while trying to take off with the heavy rooster. It abandoned its prize when I approached.

I tried to drag it home when Wally came by on the tractor. I said to him, “Rooty dead, Rooty dead!” I was aware enough to know that the bird had died. Wally took the rooster from me. I don’t think we ever got another one after that. Wally started getting his chicks from the farm supply in town, the Oliver Co-op store.

How does this relate to ethical treatment of farm animals? Everything we killed was done quickly, nothing ever suffered. We didn’t have a factory farm either, we didn’t need to transport animals to market in all kinds of weather.

Those issues were not something we needed to address. I’ve seen cruelty by certain workers at some of the factory farms I’ve worked at and I’ve never liked it but was helpless to do anything at the time. What would I do now?

I would speak up and voice an opinion and take it as far as it needs to go, without fear of backlash. I have taken a stand since for what was right regarding several issues. It was not easy and I was despised by many people for it, but it was the right thing to do at the time. I grew in character because of my stand.

We all need to do our part and compromise is part of it. There are always new and better ways of doing business. Many times outsiders can bring an important view of how to look at things.

It is easy to get into a rut doing the same things the same way. Who likes change? Nobody that I know, but we all need it and we all know it. We just don’t like change foisted upon us.

ruralreportwithlairdsmith@gmail.com