On the sanctity of all life.

We claim that human life is precious. Non-human life not so much. Yesterday I visited with a local farmer who raises chickens. They are delivered to his farm and six chicken houses 159,000 at a time as baby chicks. In 8 weeks chicken catchers arrive to gather them for slaughter. The chicken catchers grab them by the legs and pack them in crates for transport to the processing plant. Then they are killed, plucked, dismembered, processed into nuggets and fed to you, my dearest readers. So when it comes to the sanctity of life, it's best not to allow living chickens to enter into your thoughts.

One of the intended purposes of Froebel's Kindergarten was to bring children into an understanding of  all life,  so care for small animals was part of that process. And so I guess you can see why following Froebel's original vision of Kindergarten had to be abandoned: to make way for the industrial processing of kids.

In order to get chickens ready for slaughter in 8 weeks, the baby chicks are first introduced to just one end of the 42 ft. wide chicken house. An automatic feeder delivers an unending supply of feed. As the chicks grow, the length of the feeding area is extended again and again until reaching the end of the 300 ft. long chicken house. I forgot to ask what they do with the poop. Is there some way that they remove it during the 8 weeks? Or are the chickens you'll eat simply wading in it the whole time?

The farmer told me that if some of the chickens are not dying of heart attacks during the process, they are not feeding them at a fast enough rate. And so what I describe may seem quite normal to some and quite disturbing to others.

The world is a morally complex place. Learn about it.

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.