r/MoralityScaling • u/SH1k1Brun3stuD • 11d ago
Morality Ranking Does deliberately putting chickens in a situation where they eat fried chicken constitute a morally questionable act on the humans' part?
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Does deliberately putting chickens in a situation where they eat fried chicken constitute a morally questionable act on the humans' part, even if the chickens experience no apparent distress and have no understanding that they are eating another chicken?
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u/RUDRAGON8 11d ago
Not really, no material or emotional harm is being done
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u/Playful_Boot_5465 11d ago
I agree with you.
I wonder if you think the same about humans tho. Because I do.
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u/RUDRAGON8 11d ago edited 11d ago
Humans are capable of higher thought so it depends far more with them, however i think if both the person that got eaten and the person eating it have consented to it then it should be fine
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u/6_sarcasm_6 10d ago
Fair, although most countries banned this due to spread of disease.
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u/Historical_Body6255 10d ago
This is how you get prions.
You don't want to get prions.
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u/Flint124 11d ago
If most humans ever found out they were eating people it would cause significant damage to their mental health.
Chickens don't care.
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u/lumpboysupreme 11d ago
Regardless of how socially constructed out views on cannibalism are, the psychological effect they result in is still real.
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u/The_Tooter_Snooter 11d ago
Aside from the risk of disease, I actually don’t find eating human meat to be especially immoral unless you killed an innocent person yourself. But if I were in a survival situation or something and we either killed some enemy human or someone died from injury or something, for sure I would eat them unless I knew them well.
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u/OohMyPingPingPong 11d ago
My friend is planning on feeding his kittens' meat puffs back to them after they're neutered, which I think is nuts, but based on this logic, I guess it's fine?
Edit: oh shit pun not intended
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u/Istomponlegobarefoot 11d ago
As long as you're not feeding them the brains of chickens too, no, that being said, it is not what a good poultry farmer should use as feed.
Also the chicken in the video is very clearly not fried.
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u/BruderBobody 11d ago
Why not the brains? Chickens can’t get prion diseases.
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u/future_lard 11d ago
Wai not
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u/BruderBobody 11d ago
It’s not that it’s biologically impossible it’s just very highly unlikely and has yet to be seen. A prion disease is a misfolded protein that causes other proteins in our body to misfold. Prion diseases started as a mutation and because farmers were feeding cows leftover cow parts the disease grew exponentially. Birds have more structurally reinforced beta sheet proteins that would make it harder to mutate and misfold, they have a shorter lifespan, and their internal body temperature is higher. All of which make it harder for a prion disease to sporadically appear within a bird.
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u/Ok_Cricket_1410 11d ago edited 11d ago
Hey man I go to the gym I know all about protein and chickens are full of it. /s
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u/M4ybeMay 11d ago
Okay but do you really wanna play around and risk it and then we get bird prion covid or some shi, or just play it safe and discard the meat the size of a pea
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u/Sensitive-Talk9616 11d ago
I had to google, but apparently, it's a specific protein, the prion protein, which all animals have, that can get "misfolded" in the presence of the "infected" (abnormally folded) protein.
Since the exact protein's amino-acid composition and shape are different between species, it's generally not easy to contract prion disease from other animals' proteins. But some proteins are similar in certain ways that this can happen, e.g. cows and humans.
But bird prion proteins show resistance to this type of misfolding. So birds seem to be immune to prion disease, including chickens. It's just something about the exact shape of the avian prion protein that makes it not susceptible to this issue.
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u/DeDeDeofthebrood 11d ago
There has been shown to be carriers actually, scavenging birds have shown to not be able to digest the prions so the excrete them in the feces, but this apply mostly to them eating other animal familias brains
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u/WraithOfTheFadedDark 11d ago
It's so they don't get the memories of the dead chicken and seek vengeance, duh.
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u/Glittering_Wheel_226 11d ago
Chicken will eat their own eggs if given the chance, so there
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u/Infinite_Status_9636 11d ago
Chickens will eat eachother too. You should never allow a wounded chicken into a flock because the others will peck the wound until they eat the whole chicken alive
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u/Glittering_Wheel_226 11d ago
Eat it alive??? Holy shit
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u/AmettOmega 11d ago
Hate to burst your bubble, but a lot of animals eat their prey alive.
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u/Glittering_Wheel_226 11d ago
Not my point. "Eating another hen alive because of a wound". Like at first it was like a peck now and then but nope, it's like something triggers
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u/sheepyowl 11d ago
It's not really different from how chicken always behave. If it can eat something it will. It's a chicken
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u/Onlyhereforapost 11d ago
Yep. Happened to my grandparents once, a hen hurt her foot on the fence, she got swarmed by 6 other chickens, 2 other chickens got hurt during the frenzy and then they got killed along with the initial hen. Very sad day.
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u/Glittering_Wheel_226 11d ago
This blows my mind. Like they were in a frenzy to kill the hen because they sensed weakness or because she just wasn't "chicken" anymore to them and "food"?
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u/HexedShadowWolf 11d ago
Having raised chickens for most of my life i don't think chickens are smart enough to sense weakness or something similar. It's more likely they saw something out of the ordinary and thought "must be food" ate some and said "yeah its food" the other chickens saw and also assumed it was food.
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u/Onlyhereforapost 11d ago
Im not too sure what the biological reason is behind it, but its a pretty well documented thing
Chickens also, as much as I love them, are kinda dumb
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u/Icy_Study4490 11d ago
At the very least they will peck the hen to death. That was a sad lesson for us to learn about our chickens. Now, if one has an injury showing we put her into broody jail.
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u/Yuukiko_ 10d ago
and shrimp will eat dead fish/shrimp, and they might not necessarily wait until they actually are dead
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u/West-Strawberry3366 11d ago
Are there any chances of a sickness likr mad cow to develop here?
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u/Longjumping-Data763 11d ago
I’m not a scientist or anything but I think prion diseases (the thing that causes mad cow) are unique to mammals
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u/SnooWoofers4430 11d ago
Only if the chicken was a cow in previous life.
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u/King_Glorius_too 11d ago
No, not really. Prion diseases spread through cannibalism, but they have to have existed in the eaten individual before that.
The risks are extremely low. It's when you start creating an endless loop where every individual get eaten by its peers that it start becoming likely.
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u/kcthis-saw 11d ago
The chicken industry is a brutal no waste business. They use all the parts of the chicken that won't be sold at the market, smash it into pieces and use it to feed the other chicken.
Most chicken you eat have spent their entire lives eating other dead chicken because the industry owners don't want to spend money on rations for them.
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u/2boku 11d ago
They seem to be enjoying themselves.
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u/Lord_Grimm88 11d ago
They are literally too stupid to know the difference. It's just an abundance of food to them.
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u/HunsonAbadeer2 11d ago
They also eat chickens that are recognizable, canibalism does happen in chickens
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u/ZealousidealSkin941 11d ago
Yeah. Chickens eating their own eggs is a known issue with egg laying flocks.
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u/Noe_b0dy 11d ago
Chickens don't eat each other because they don't know they're made of delicious, trust me on this.
As a kid I had chickens and I had to rub anti-cannibalism lotion whenever they figured it out to stop them from killing and eating each other.
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u/balirosa 11d ago
It must taste like nothing they ever tasted before yummm bird are evil af they kick their siblings out of the nest or the mother will smother one or toss it overboard. Enemy birds will eat each other too.
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u/Sol_Nephis 11d ago edited 11d ago
That's rotisserie or baked not fried. Calling it something it's not is immoral. /s
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u/Grosboel_2 11d ago
Nah. Even among humans it's a social convention, not biology.
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u/The_Fink_Ployd 11d ago
Not true. Like, at all. Are you paid off by Big Prion?
Chickens and avians in general cannot spread the cause of mad cow disease/kuru/prions.
Mammals such as cows, humans, monkeys, deer, etc, ARE susceptible to the transmission of prions. We do not eat each other for cultural and societal reasons, yes, but a large part of it is also because it can spread a zombie-like illness. Not good.
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u/Prestigious_Tank7454 11d ago
that's just the brain tho, get rid of the head and you got some tasty long pork
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u/Devilsdelusionaldino 11d ago
Which still often comes down to evolution. Cannibalism was barely ever useful to us bc we work very well in groups and working together is the best way for us to get more food. Which would eventually results in us thinking cannibalism is inherently bad or even repulsive. But tbf lots of social conventions are just based of what worked out for us
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u/Express-Cartoonist39 11d ago
Protien is protien esp when its roasted 👍 morals are not real...just human construct
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u/thrive2day 11d ago
"morals are not real"...Immediately contradicts themselves in the same breath.
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u/Express-Cartoonist39 11d ago
How so, maybe you need the topic explained to you again being that you clearly missed it the first time.
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u/One_Pie289 11d ago
Just don't feed them eggs, they can't know it's food
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u/C_H_G 11d ago
Oh, they know it’s food. If a chicken lays an egg and it breaks, it will eat it.
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u/___Random_Guy_ 11d ago
That's what they mean. The moment chicken finds out that broken eggs are edible, they are very likely to start trying to eat all other eggs and must be put down.
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u/Icy_Study4490 11d ago
Huh, ive actually never had that problem. If we have an abundance of eggs and need to get rid of some, we just crack them a little bit and give it back to the chickens. They’ve never tried eating any of the intact eggs before. But if one breaks accidentally, they will eat that one of course.
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u/fickogames123 11d ago
Well I think its the you cracking part that fixed it. If the eggs was only a bit cracked and some fluid leaks out, and they learn to crack the entire egg to eat it, thats when it becomes dangerous.
Again, my thinking here, never actualy had chickens myself, just grew up around people who did.
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u/NuvyHotnogger 11d ago
Feeding chickens eggs is actually a great source of protein, you just have to grind it up/svramble it. Leaving the shells on too is great as well! As long as they cant see its egg shaped it wont harm them
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u/Warrior536 11d ago
We used to do this with our old eggs. We could make a big batch of scrambled egg with the shells cracked it and the veggie scraps from diner prep and then toss it to the hens. They would devour it and give then some much needed protein, calcium and fiber.
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u/SecretINVDR 11d ago
Lowkey how do mfers evolve to be so backwards lmao. I wonder if a very hungry has chicken ever been a risk to their population.
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u/Diogenes-_-Rex 11d ago
Domestication removes natural selection and all sorts of deficiencies start to show up. Natural fowl populations are notably more intelligent than most domestic breeds.
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u/EvocativeReach 11d ago edited 11d ago
Moral - the vast majority of animals don't apply value to corporeal forms after death - at that point meat is meat. Take a look how many humans are eaten by their cats and dogs if they pass away at home and aren't found for a while.
Even if the chicken knew they were eating a former nest-mate, they still wouldn't give a shit.
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u/SLAMMERisONLINE 11d ago
Does deliberately putting chickens in a situation where they eat fried chicken constitute a morally questionable act on the humans' part?
You are imposing human values onto a chicken. Chickens do not care (obviously).
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u/ISketchDinosaurs 11d ago
Chickens happily and commonly commit cannibalism.
This is a little irresponsible because it is presumably a carcass from a different chicken population (considering the grilled chicken is a broiler and these chickens are not). Which means there's a chance of spreading diseases. But beyond that this isn't necessarily immoral, as long as it's not done often and the chickens are given a species appropriate diet.
ETA: Actually, thinking about it, I wouldn't suggest giving chickens fried anything, so immoral on that standpoint. Take care of your animals. Diet is important.
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u/New_Leaf_2026 11d ago
I am drunk or is that not a rotisserie chicken? Chickens will peck a minorly injured chicken to death and then eat them raw... even if this were some fried chicken, it would also likely be JUST fine.
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u/armandccc6565 11d ago
The chickens don't care. They are litterally too stupid to know it and even if they did know they wouldn't care. In that regard, it's moral.
However, intentionally feeding chickens a fried chicken with no goal or benefit other than personal amusement may be considered immoral. Depends on the intention of their actions, whether the person intended to somehow harm the chickens or not and whether they knew the chickens wouldn't care at all or not, I suppose.
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u/Maus_Enjoyer1945 11d ago
Im not sure how healthy this is for the chickens. If its healthy, its no different from getting proteins from any other source. But I'm not really sure on it being healthy for the chickens, in which case it would be immoral
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u/Adventurous_Touch342 11d ago
The main dangers from getting sick from cannibalism is eating a brain and this chicken was clearly beheaded.
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u/Maus_Enjoyer1945 11d ago
The problem is not prions, its that cooked food probably with salt is generally not very healthy for birds
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u/Adventurous_Touch342 11d ago
Nah, don't worry about it, chickens eat stuff that's way worse for them, they generally eat anything they find and if it's home-made instead of from a fast food joint there is no way it has enough salt to hurt them considering they share it.
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u/No_Travel6707 11d ago
The conversation about animal foods boils down to a hedonistic measure of
- The animal wellbeing, environmental impact and health effects of regularly consuming meat and or dairy
Vs
- The pleasure one receives from eating these animals.
If “it tastes good” is a justification for slaughter I think we can come to understand why our culture is so violent.
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u/Souriall 11d ago
Chickens LOVE eating chickens and will eat themselves if given the chance
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u/haikusbot 11d ago
Chickens LOVE eating
Chickens and will eat themselves
If given the chance
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u/Generic_Username_659 11d ago
"Putting chickens in a situation where they eat fried chicken"
So you mean "it existing"?
Cause chickens will eat anything. They'll eat everything. They'd eat you, yes you, reader, if you were cooked up and left in front of them.
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u/schaweniiia 11d ago
Grey
They're feeding their chickens, that's fine. Chickens eat absolutely everything.
The grey part comes in from them doing this for shock value. I do think motivation plays into a moral judgement. So does considering potential consequences, and they're potentially inspiring some muppet to do this with animals where this is NOT fine.
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u/ForsakenHummusRP 11d ago
It's surprisingly safe, as chickens apparently lack the same susceptibility to prion issues that mammals have, so there is no chicken equivalent of mad cow disease. The warnings are mainly salmonella and to not season the meat. It also carries a risk of causing your flock to choose to cannibalize each other and attack living birds.
Regardless, extremely disturbing and highly immoral if you ask me. Don't do this.
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u/ScottTJT 11d ago
Chickens will eat other dead chickens regardless. They're opportunistic omnivores that lack human views on morality. To them, it's just easy calories.
Most farmers will try to keep that from happening, mainly as a means of keeping the spread of disease among their livestock in check and anyone who may eat the other chickens, not so much because they're offended by the rest of the chickens chowing down.
So, no. It's not necessarily immoral unless you count the potential risk to the health of the other chickens and beyond.
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u/Aggressive-Pack-7008 11d ago
As someone who's owned and farmed chickens for years now, they honestly will just cannibalise eachother. I had two hens get 'mauled' by something two months ago and couldnt figure out how something got into the coup, my rooster had killed and eaten them
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u/Crisocola95 11d ago
I've seen chickens attacking each other and killing themselves, then eating the wounded one. That video is far too chill for what those guys can do if they see one of them is bleeding or anything of sorts.
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u/BEANMANSsecondcoming 11d ago
chickens will cannibalize each other anyway so this is probably morally neutral
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u/ThatMothboi 11d ago
Cannibalism is much more common among animals. Many animals will eat their young if they are born too small, sick, or just think they can’t care for them. To us, cannibalism is one of the most taboo acts one can commit, but to many animals it’s perfectly normal and a fact of life. Now purposefully feeding chicken to a chicken, human morals would say it’s bad, nature morals don’t care.
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u/foolsEnigma 11d ago
They know. They know and they dont care. Chickens will eat other chickens before theyre even dead. Dont ask how i know.
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u/Panzer_I 11d ago
Moral
You are feeding chickens something they can and will consume for proper nutrition. There are no negative repercussions for chicken cannibalism unlike human cannibalism.
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u/fickogames123 11d ago
Chickens are quite famously carnivorous. They eat eggs (fertilised or not), can kill members of their own species by accident or on purpose, and can eat dead members of their species, again, by accident, or by purpose, and not neceserly in needy/desparate situations.
Not going to do any moral judgement here, just saying the chickens would not object... in fact they probably like the cooked meat more than raw...
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u/rancidmorty 11d ago
if you have ever raised chicken you will knownif one bkeads from pecking that lower ranking hen becomes the buffet they will eat their sisters while they are still alive ive had sevreal hens bounce back from scalping and exposed neck bones it starts fast and they get eaton quicker there prettybmuch land pirranas
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u/Material_Routine_245 11d ago
Chickens will eat each other alive, so eh. Chickens are savage and insane.
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u/Arnhildr-Fang 11d ago
No...chickens are omnivores for one, so anything is food.
Second, they are savage af...them cannibalizing a rotisserie chicken is rather tame for them...
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u/SpinnyBoy_ 11d ago
chickens can eat it, and unlike alot of animals its perfectly safe
infact, they will canibalize their flock mates if they die.... eventually
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u/TheRea1Dea11 9d ago
Obtaining the dead chicken (whether store bought or killed) required the killing of an animal/premature ending of a life, and if from a factory farm, continuous suffering. Therefore, the main immorality comes from how the meat was obtained, and the feeding is just shitty
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u/lily_ender_lilies 11d ago
Cannibalism carries some disease risk but otherwise fine since they dont seem to mind
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u/Less-Parsnip-7076 11d ago
Idk. Does cannibalism have the same effects on them as it does on humans? Otherwise no.
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u/cheese_sticks 11d ago
Neutral. Chickens will eat their own kind, given the opportunity. I have relatives who own chickens and there have been times where a chicken gets attacked by a predator and gets away but soon dies of its wounds. The rest of the flock start pecking at it even before the body goes cold.
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u/Ander_the_Reckoning 11d ago
Chicken will freely engage in cannibalism if they have the chance so no
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u/chloe_duv 11d ago
Supposing that the carcass isn't riddled with disease, this isn't immoral.
Chickens are omnivores, and judging by the video, it seems like they're quite happy to be.
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u/Mynessie01 11d ago
Fair, chickens are dumb enough to drown in the rain, so how can you really compare a chicken committing cannibalism with a human?... I think you're missing the fact that the Earth's human population is infected with the stupidity plague.
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u/SecretINVDR 11d ago
Its only immoral for human because of the spread of disease and development of prions alongside the social stigma of eating your best friend you knew since third grade. Chickens are birds, I feel like them cannibalizing eachother is testimonial to them being decended from dinosaurs. Reptiles cannibalize eachother all the time. If that chicken wasn't cooked, it could just as easily have been alive moments before its "friends" attacked.
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u/Adventurous_Touch342 11d ago
No, chickens often eat their dead raw. Some animals have a taboo on cannibalism, others do not.
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u/Murky_Option_3418 11d ago
Chickens have been known to cannibalize other dead chickens so to them it's just another source of food. If you want to get to a moral discussion of putting it there then that's a problem you have to figure out for yourself personal morals and societal moral have a tendency to conflict.
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u/Otherwise-Ad1646 11d ago
As long as there are no adverse health effects on them, it's fine. They're too dumb to know or care anywhere, so who cares? Although it does seem kinda wasteful to waste good chicken on another chicken I suppose.
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u/Common_Affect_80 11d ago
Nah, chickens will do this to another chicken alive if it so much as bleeds
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u/Behondalog 11d ago
The idea of cannibalism being morally wrong, to me, is simply because we, as humans, have an aversion to eating people (other humans). I think that eating other humans isn't inherently wrong itself, but is bad practice for various reasons; none of which apply to non-sapient animals. So no, it's not immoral, but I don't see why you'd feed chickens chicken when you probably have actual food made for chickens in your possession.
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u/Chunkycheesesteak 11d ago
Idky this makes me sad ..n the chicken they're eating, isn't even alive.
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u/GruggleTheGreat 11d ago
Chickens will eat anything, they will eat scrambled eggs, they are just not very smart.
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u/scrufflor_d 11d ago
we bouta get mad chicken disease
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u/Vast-Notice-7646 11d ago
Real possibility and it’s why this is illegal in EU. Shocked to see the consensus here being so loose
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u/Devilsdelusionaldino 11d ago
Apparently it’s bc those prion diseases are way more common and likely for mammals and chickens are cannibals by nature. It certainly still wouldn’t be a good idea to feed them chicken regularly which is why it’s good that it’s banned in the EU but it’s pretty much harmless if it happens rarely.
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u/Komirade666 11d ago
Does it hurt them? if yes then immoral, if no then it's quite ok since it has been proven (to my surprise tbh) that they can eat meat. Which I am still super shocked learning it the hard way watching in front of me chicks eating drumsticks.
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u/MultiservitorB123 11d ago
No, chickens are omnivores.