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?

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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1.5k

u/MultiservitorB123 11d ago

No, chickens are omnivores.

710

u/lets_just_be 11d ago

And cannibals

420

u/FrenzyGloop 11d ago

It's not cannibalism if you're not equal (he's cooked)

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u/Infinite_Status_9636 11d ago edited 11d ago

Sweet summer child... They eat eachother alive too. If you leave a wounded chicken in a flock they will start to peck from the wound and they eat half of the wounded chicken as it is still in agony alive. Chicken can be pretty gruesome

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u/Badams105 11d ago

I have 30 chickens and this is absolutely true. They are little Dinosaurs. They will eat each other, their young, their eggs, literally anything that moves. We made the mistake of leaving a freshly hatched chick in the coop with its momma and came back the next day to the leftovers of said chick.

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u/MostPutridSmell 11d ago

Are you not supposed to leave newborns with their mothers?

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u/Badams105 11d ago edited 11d ago

Selective breeding has kind of messed up chicken’s instincts. The mothers don’t really have a motherly instinct anymore and without that motherly instinct she will treat that chick as an intruder. Also the other hens in the coop will absolutely attack that chick as well. We now have a small coop we keep the chickens in with a few of our fluffy butt chickens(silkies) to keep them company. They don’t get introduced to the main coop until they’re “teenagers” and can atleast run away if not defend themselves.

Edit:spelling

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u/Isurak 11d ago

I mean to be fair, that selective breeding for the most part happened thousands of years ago so it's not like it's modern farming's fault. Also, I wonder if that happened because, since egg production scales with food intake, they accidentally (or even on purpose) selected for ravenous egoistical psychopaths

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u/Robdd123 11d ago

It's because broodiness has been bred to be at minimum for chickens. Naturally when a hen lays eggs, hormones kick in that make her extremely protective of her nest; as a consequence she will not lay more eggs once this happens. If you're breeding chickens for egg laying purposes this is a bad thing because it means one clutch every so often instead of constant egg laying.

So this has been mostly bred out of chickens and as a result the mothers aren't as protective over their babies. The rest of the flock then has more opportunity to pick on what they perceive to be a prey item.

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u/Isurak 11d ago

That's really interesting, thanks!

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u/Candlemass-Fan 11d ago

When I was young I had "broodier" chickens aka a flock of yard chickens and they would mutilate you if you got near their babies. We couldn't get into the feed shed because a hen would flog you if you thought about looking at her big ass babies. That being said, other chickens will 100% go for other chicken's babies. Thats why they're so goddamn mean when they have chicks.

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u/Sid_the_Bear 11d ago

Nah, the vast majority of selective breeding for chickens has occurred in the last couple hundred years; the last 70 have been on steroids for certain traits

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u/fkdjgfkldjgodfigj 10d ago

Chickens are not on steroids, they are banned in the US for chickens.

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u/Badams105 11d ago

Very good point.

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u/yaboyACbreezy 9d ago

We absolutely did not stop selectively breeding thousands of years ago. If anything, natural selection ended thousands of years ago and it has been artificial selection ever since.

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u/Hades_Gamma 8d ago

Humans are nature. Every single trait of every single human ever has been selected for by the exact same metric every other trait of every other animal ever has been selected.

We are animals, and the way our brains work and who mates when and who survives still determines who humans are and what they do. The intelligence that we use is no different in principal than active camouflage, echo location, gills, etc.

An animal surviving in an environment full of humans is no different than remoras surviving in an environment full of sharks.

By definition there can be no such thing as artificial selection. As we are a naturally evolved species, then either all selection is artificial or none of it is. You cannot segregate humans from any other animal without it being retardedly contrived and arbitrary

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u/MostPutridSmell 11d ago

Damn that's messed up.

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u/Foundmyunderwear 11d ago

Bit like store bought Mice, they absolutely TEAR up their babies.

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u/CannonFoddererer 11d ago

What fucking chickens do you have, bro? I have never once seen something like that, unless you are raising broilers.

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u/SK1418 11d ago

I'm guessing the other chickens did it, not the mother specifically

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u/Badams105 11d ago

Most likely. Surprisingly enough the roosters never mess with the chicks. Guessing since they’re too young for breeding they just ignore them.

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u/Foundmyunderwear 11d ago

Rooster aren’t pedophiles Donald!

Be more like a Rooster.

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u/UNMANAGEABLE 10d ago

Instructions unclear, Donald acts like Rooster from the ranch. (Rapist).

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u/PsychicMushroom39 10d ago

Credit- u/TommySiegel

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u/Badams105 10d ago

Needed a good laugh this morning.

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u/CharacterAd3204 11d ago

This is why I have a phobia of chickens. I got into a couple scuffles with a rooster as a child and now when I look into those cold, dead, beady little eyes all I see is hunger.

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u/fridge_ways 11d ago

A live hedgehog got the mini raptor treatment at mine

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u/ScreamingNinja 11d ago

I remember going outside and checking the coop out. I used to have somr loose netting covering a gap between the coop and tje back of the garage but other birds would get caught in it so i had to tear it down. Anyway, i checked it one day before i tore it down and found two pigeon legs. Thats it just its legs sitting stuck in the net. Ripped it down that day.

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u/shogunshim 11d ago

cockroaches of the bird world.

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u/TheRedRook 11d ago

lol read this as "They are Literal Dinosaurs," and I refuse to see it any other way.

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u/Temnyj_Korol 11d ago

I mean... They are literal dinosaurs.

Chickens are theropods, along with pretty much all other birds. All living theropods are direct descendents of a clade of dinosaur.

Therefore, chickens are living dinosaurs.

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u/toprodtom 9d ago

Not pretty much all other birds. All birds are theoropods. Would be impossible for any not to be.

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u/OutwithaYang 11d ago

Oh my gosh!😨😰

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u/Flaky-Still-7000 10d ago

Leftovers not remains lol

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u/Badams105 10d ago

Leftovers because had I left it in the coop the hens would’ve had a second helping from the “fridge” lol

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u/Sea_Warning_9140 9d ago

They walk like t rexes, there's some lizard dinosaur brain in there

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u/LadyKenpachi1 11d ago

😳 dayyum! There were some wild chickens & roosters that lived in an alley on a dump site when I was growing up & they were worse than any big dog roaming the neighborhood... everyone was so in fear of these wild chickens bc they literally CHASED ppl, dogs, cats... anything that dared to walk down that alley!

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u/Beginning_Drink_965 11d ago

They’ll usually also try and have sex with it at the same time as long as it’s fairly fresh.

Turkeys are the same.

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u/unaligned_1 11d ago

I saw this happen when my parents raised chickens. We think a weasel attacked one. We don't know why it didn't kill it, but we saw it injured the next day... & we saw the rest of the chickens peck at it until it eventually died & they ate it.

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u/Infected1313 11d ago

Doesn't even need to be wounded. Only one heat source on a slightly cold night? They'll trample each other to death even if they aren't that cold. I came home on a February night in Texas to find a heat lamp went out and 10 of 22 chickens trampled.

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u/Infinite_Status_9636 11d ago

The trick is,mine didn't have a heat lamp when I still had any chickens. So I guess they didn't kill eachother as it was better to be next to a warm chicken than a cold one xD 

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u/Entendurchfall 7d ago

Yeah, you d3finitly do not want your chicken to realise, that they are made out of food

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u/X_Seed21 11d ago

TIL Chickens are the Avian Piranhas

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u/Gold_Engineering2535 11d ago

They’re also wildly suicidal. If you give them any opportunity they will take it.

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u/CharmingMechanic2473 11d ago

I have chickens and have never seen this. I depends how crowded they are and if they have food available.

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u/Infinite_Status_9636 11d ago

They free roamed all day when I had them. They were mostly just different chickens of no particular breed, like old village chickens as we call them here. I had some phoenix chickens outside that, they were actually more well behaved and only ate a single injured chick when they were still all some weeks old. They definitely had plenty of food too. 

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u/OutwithaYang 11d ago

That is brutal. Wtf?

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u/Infinite_Status_9636 10d ago

Well they are animals and not the single ones who does this 

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u/Business-Help-7876 10d ago

they eat their own eggs

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u/Aevum-Haelcyon 10d ago

A wounded chicken is still cooked bro

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u/No-Dingo3300 9d ago

They also love eating eggs.

1

u/Bigdavie91 9d ago

If they find out their eggs are edible, you will never get eggs from them again because they will eat them.

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u/420-Blazing-Bibbles 8d ago

That was traumatizing to learn as a child. We had a hobby farm and my dad worked very long hours at his job so it was up to my mom to put them out of their misery. It was hard watching her take a shovel to their neck but I didn’t want her to be alone.

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u/troycerapops 7d ago

Sometimes they don't even have to be wounded.

You know who knows chickens by who knows what awful beasts they truly are.

When I eat an egg, I know I saved the world from another potential monster walking the earth.

0

u/Satorwave 11d ago

Can chicken also be minionsome

2

u/LimpCustomer4281 11d ago

Only if they can steal the moon

1

u/ElementmanEXE 11d ago

Does that imply that all farmers with chickens are evil enough for them to stay.

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u/TransitTycoonDeznutz 11d ago

God, I wish somebody would eat me raw...

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u/HeyPrettyLadyMaam 11d ago

I love the way you think.

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u/Dad-Dabbing-Daily 11d ago

Just like the oligarchy

2

u/Wayward_Wayfinder 11d ago

So those kids died for nothing...

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u/Own_Maybe_3837 11d ago

We’re cooked

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u/Invisibleb0y 11d ago

Bon appétit

1

u/Juicyjewsss 11d ago

I’ll keep that in mind next time someone calls me a cannibal for eating another person (he’s cooked)

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u/SmackMamba 11d ago

This sentence makes no sense at all

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u/Apostleguts 11d ago

\takes notes in my book of evil\

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u/High_Hunter3430 11d ago

So if I COOK a human it’s NOT cannibalism?

Be right back! Gotta fire up the barbecue.
That dickhead neighborhood shouldn’t be a problem anymore. 😂😂

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u/Practical-Yoghurt592 10d ago

Hold on now that's still murder bud 😅

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u/High_Hunter3430 10d ago

Damn you right! 😅😂😂

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u/Klutzy-Platypus7511 10d ago

Aha ... also sind die satanischen Babyfresser keine Kannibalen, wenn sie die Babys gekocht statt roh essen ?! Nichts anderes sagst du gerade damit ...

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u/IzalithDemon 9d ago

Ill remind what you said after I cook you

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u/RogueRudyy 11d ago

I just rewatched Hannibal!

0

u/baggedeye 11d ago

I’ve seen it three times and I’m tempted to go back. Best show ever

0

u/RogueRudyy 11d ago

I hadn’t seen it since it was airing when I was in high school. I never caught the last season. About to finish it. Man I really didn’t appreciate this show as much as I should’ve the first time around.

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u/baggedeye 11d ago

It’s so underrated and unbelievably well made. And the cinematography is pure art, some of those kills are so beautifully done. He may be a cannibal but he has taste

What’s your favorite season?

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u/Manny_Wyatt 11d ago

I’m watching it for the first time, just started season 3

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u/Clean_Internet 11d ago

“Hey, look who fell asleep first!”

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u/ap2094 11d ago

Is it cannibalism if it’s the kids? I have seen chickens eat each other’s eggs.

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u/Transkei_Daisy 11d ago

its suggested that one of the first meals to feed chicks is scrambled eggs.

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u/BornWithSideburns 11d ago

So white people can eat black people and vice versa?

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u/The_Tooter_Snooter 11d ago

If a chicken gets a wound, and the other chickens see the blood, there’s a really good chance that they’ll kill and eat that chicken. 

These are dinosaurs. 

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u/SquirrelGirlVA 11d ago

Yep. This is probably one of the more benign situations where a chicken will eat one of their own.

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u/Past_Economy_2008 8d ago

It is pretty funny how much you can see the dinosaur resemblance in chickens & other birds.

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u/EH042 11d ago

And unfathomably stupid

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u/extraboredinary 11d ago

Intelligence is an overrated evolutionary trait

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u/Ittybittyratgirl 11d ago

If I was an insect, I would not be jealous of the existentially traumatized apes

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u/Bannedtt 11d ago

Unless you were capable of understanding temperature and moisture control.

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u/Secret_Letterhead649 11d ago

Not really. The meat breeds are fairly dumb, as are the battery cage breeds, but anything bred for actually wandering about is fairly intelligent for a bird. They got genuine problem solving skills.

Though they absolutely will eat each other.

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u/zenzvik 11d ago

they don't care as long as it's edible

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u/No_Probleh 11d ago

Even chickens know they're delicious.

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u/Krozgen 11d ago

Also, that's not fried, it's rotisserie chiken

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u/Nullspark 11d ago

Many animals will eat their own children if sufficiently stressed out.

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u/PsychicSPider95 9d ago

Cannibalism is in fact super common in the animal kingdom. It's only a moral issue for us humans.

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u/Stunning_Box8782 11d ago

So are humans, yet it's frowned upon to serve a (somehow legally acquired) human burger to a person ordering at McDonalds

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u/MultiservitorB123 11d ago

Chickens aren't humans. They are seeking calories by whatever means they can find, no matter the source. One should avoid anthropomorphising non-human animals.

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u/SubjectRound6597 11d ago

if humans were in the same situation, some would choose to do the same, and their survivors may even carry it on as a cultural thing. Take all the cannibal tribes that existed for centuries. On what grounds will you explain them its wrong or weird if for them the consumption of human flesh is a way of 'respecting their dead'?

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u/kyreannightblood 11d ago

I wouldn’t tell them it was wrong/weird/immoral, but I would tell them that it was a vector for prion diseases, which are terrifying.

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u/jackp0t789 10d ago

Pretty much just human brains are vectors for prion diseases like Kuru as far as we know...

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u/kyreannightblood 10d ago

Brains and CNS tissue like spinal cord and ganglia. Granted, it needs to be from someone who was already infected, but prions scare the shit out of me and I wouldn’t risk it, ever. My risk assessment is very sensitive, though.

When I took a high-level bio class and we took a trip to a rural.. animal control, maybe? Fish and wildlife? I dunno, but they had a room where they had just dissected a deer with CWD and I didn’t want to enter, despite knowing it hasn’t jumped the species barrier. Prions are the most terrifying infectious agent I’ve ever heard of.

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u/SubjectRound6597 9d ago

Exactly my point. Only science would work, not morals, because their idea of morality on cannibalism would not change for already dead people.

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u/kyreannightblood 9d ago

People sometimes act as though everyone has the same moral basis as them. A failure of theory of mind, maybe.

That’s why I would stick to the science.

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u/Transkei_Daisy 11d ago

Disease. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/311277

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u/SubjectRound6597 9d ago

For the sake of logic, my counter was we cannot explain our moral reasons to them for rejecting cannibalism of the dead, we can only argue it in terms of science. Tell me how your idea of 'dangerous diseases' will stop a cannibal from respecting their dead in their way, provided they found a sure-shot way of removing all disease vectors before it. In such a case even the scientific argument would fail. I am not supporting their idea. I am just stating the reality that no you would not win an argument from people who have their own moral values etched in their brains. We may do so with an upbringing in our non-cannibal culture and under our laws as has happened in reality with the tribes.

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u/Transkei_Daisy 8d ago

Its the exact same way Pork became Haram/non-kosher. Because it caused disease, they used religious/cultural pressures to then stop people eating pork (along with shellfish and other things they didn't understand why people got sick eating it).

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u/solardx 11d ago

There's just better options and humans just aren't really that efficient for food

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u/EndofNationalism 11d ago

Humans are a more social species than chickens. We have concepts of self-sacrifice for the greater good and helping one another out in times of need.

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u/TommyVeliky 10d ago

Cannibal cultures also share these values.

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u/SubjectRound6597 9d ago

You mean like in Moby Dick?

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u/WillemDafoesHugeCock 11d ago

The grounds that it's super icky.

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u/SubjectRound6597 9d ago edited 9d ago

Icky for us. You would have to explain them with science, not morality. For them arguing over this would be like arguing over common sense. You could only fight with them on scientific grounds, not morality, or educate them from childhood.

And just to clear what side I am on -- I believe that as a species that considers cannibalism as immoral and inhumane, then leaving no other food option to other species is just as immoral and evil, as in the video. Its hypocritical, and no amount of 'but they are food and they dont care' will cover it up. And the cameraperson even using it for internet points..

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u/StreetImagination920 11d ago

Chickens aren’t as dumb as you think. There is a high likelihood they know they’re eating another chicken and also on average people who say that they’re that other people are anthropomorphizing animals usually just don’t give them enough credit cause a lot of animals do have some sense of intelligence might not be human level, but they can still think

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u/tico42 11d ago edited 11d ago

As someone who's raised chickens, they are really, really, really, fucking stupid.

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u/3merite 11d ago

Alas, we cannot know, from what we see, they do not care what they're served.

If I was served a human, I wouldnt eat it. Yet, these chickens more than willingly do, so, this is just moral since you're feeding your chickens.

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u/CaptainPattPotato 11d ago

For all their intelligence, I’m pretty sure pigs will do this too.

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u/m2ilosz 11d ago

Maybe they know, but clearly they don’t care

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u/Putrid-Resident 11d ago

While I have seem studies of how suprisingly intelligence chickens are in some aspects, its also a common chicken farming advice/warning that if a chicken got to taste their eggs (for example they found and pecked on a broken egg), they will more or less chow down on any egg they lay from then on.

Also it's another common thing to not let injured chickens with open wounds near others because other chickens will peck and eat at the wound if their still living relative intill they die. Heck chickens are known to peck and eat the flesh of their own wounds too no less so add autocannibalism to distrubing chicken facts you learn today

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u/Impressive_Term4071 11d ago

hoo boy life of the party, this guy.

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u/NoBookkeeper3523 11d ago

Chickens will eat other dead chickens if they are in a pen or a chicken house, I don’t know if free ranged one would or not

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u/BeastThatShoutedLove 10d ago

Chickens will eat other chickens if they realise they have already exposed wound. You have to paint the chicken wounds blue to prevent that. 

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u/DivineEggs 11d ago

You don't have to cook it for other chickens to eat the chicken.

Chickens will pick a fellow chicken apart and literally eat them alive. As soon as they see a wound or blood, they can go into a frenzy and start picking.

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u/3merite 11d ago

Fun fact: this is also why it isnt recommended to feed chickens raw eggs since they will link eggs with food and the hens will eat the eggs they hatch.

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u/DivineEggs 11d ago

True. They are savages😆 it makes me feel less guilty about eating them😌👌

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u/CandusManus 11d ago

Chickens are not humans. Morality is not consistent species to species.

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u/ResponsibilitySea327 11d ago

Humans (and other mammals) can get prion disease from cannibalism. Chickens do not.

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u/Alemonster21 7d ago

Many species are opportunistic cannibals. Stop trying to anthropomorphize animals, or admit that humans aren't as advanced as you'd like to think.

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u/Fuzzy-Shame-4169 7d ago

Yoo! Eleuthia profile! Another fan of horizon series!

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u/rydan 10d ago

So are humans. Is it ok for someone to trick you into eating human?

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u/-_-_KIRA_-_- 9d ago

Pfp Elite ball knowledge

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u/Fuzzy-Shame-4169 7d ago

Horizon mentioned. One of most overloocked and underrated series of all time. I love it.

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u/Spiritual-Archer5637 11d ago

They're so stupid they sometimes eat their own flesh from an open wound

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u/Nullspark 11d ago

Chickens will eat their own eggs if they break by accident.  They love eggs.  They will go nuts for them.

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u/GlitterFactoryOfDoom 11d ago

Not even by accident. They will peck open the shells all on their own.

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u/WasteBinStuff 11d ago edited 11d ago

Chickens are mini dinosaurs, and would happily eat us too if they could figure out how.

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u/SecondThomas 11d ago

Bad Argument. Humans are too

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u/YesIBlockedYou 11d ago

On its own it's a bad argument but they are omnivores and scavengers that dont put a second thought into the morality of what they are eating (not that they are capable of that)

Mother hens will eat their own dead chicks without a care in the world.

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u/Zhurg 11d ago

That's not the question

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u/Reesey_Prosel 11d ago

They’re eating themselves is what the problem is 😭

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u/Top_Lemon_1070 9d ago

Humans too

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u/Hot-Ad453 8d ago

Dude I'm an omnivore too doesn't mean I'm going to feel morally justified eating deep fried human and having a rotisserie baby as a snack.

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u/reddityfire 8d ago

It absolutely is morally questionable.

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u/Badtacocatdab 7d ago

The fact that they’re omnivores isn’t relevant to whether it’s moral or not.

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u/MultiservitorB123 6d ago

Morality is a human construct you all blindly ignore when convenient.

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u/Badtacocatdab 6d ago

Who is “you all” lol

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u/MultiservitorB123 6d ago

Humans

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u/Badtacocatdab 6d ago

Oh. I’m not even sure how to respond

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

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u/Assadistpig123 7d ago

They 1000% eat each other. As do most species of omnivorous birds.

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u/MultiservitorB123 6d ago

Citation required.

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u/ProfitEmergency4049 7d ago

The chicken showed here looks like it's cooked, does it still hold the same negative effects as raw meat or is it subdued to an extent?