Just keep on eatin' the poultry, ma'am
Just skimmed through the local free rag. It says the local poultry industry is very concerned about avian flu. For the sake of the industry, which could be 'decimated'. Or even eliminated. It mentions disinfecting visitors to farms, if they couldn't be disuaded from visiting in the first place.
What is conspicuously lacking in the half-page article, is any concern whatsoever for the humans involved: either residents of our garden county or even the poultry farmers themselves. The tone of the piece suggests that if there is a bowl of disinfectant at the farm gate, then all there is to fear is consumer unwillingness to buy chicken at the supermarket.
Quite apart from anything else, how is a disinfectant mat going to help against avian flu?
So keep on buying that chicken, especially Irish chicken, to ensure the continued health of our Irish poultry farmer.
On a related avian theme: I saw a red kite kill and eat a pigeon on campus the other day. The kite having had its fill, a magpie and later, a crow, also partook. The a groundsman came and put the remains into the dumpster, with tongs. But shouldn't those bird remains have been tested, just in case it was a sick bird?
Anyway, thinking that the sighting of this event was an interesting story to relate, I was in full flow to the offspring, when she stopped me with a bored expression. She had already heard identical stories from 2 different people this week, describing 'a rare and interesting thing' that they had witnessed in their respective gardens. In widely different parts of the county - and except that they described the bird as a sparrowhawk, it was the identical story.
Do we have a suddenly extra-rapacious birds of prey, or is 'something odd' going on? I'm certainly glad there is a ready supply of large pigeons around for these birds - that kite looked a mean customer ( cue 'The Birds' theme music).
I blame the weather!
What is conspicuously lacking in the half-page article, is any concern whatsoever for the humans involved: either residents of our garden county or even the poultry farmers themselves. The tone of the piece suggests that if there is a bowl of disinfectant at the farm gate, then all there is to fear is consumer unwillingness to buy chicken at the supermarket.
Quite apart from anything else, how is a disinfectant mat going to help against avian flu?
So keep on buying that chicken, especially Irish chicken, to ensure the continued health of our Irish poultry farmer.
On a related avian theme: I saw a red kite kill and eat a pigeon on campus the other day. The kite having had its fill, a magpie and later, a crow, also partook. The a groundsman came and put the remains into the dumpster, with tongs. But shouldn't those bird remains have been tested, just in case it was a sick bird?
Anyway, thinking that the sighting of this event was an interesting story to relate, I was in full flow to the offspring, when she stopped me with a bored expression. She had already heard identical stories from 2 different people this week, describing 'a rare and interesting thing' that they had witnessed in their respective gardens. In widely different parts of the county - and except that they described the bird as a sparrowhawk, it was the identical story.
Do we have a suddenly extra-rapacious birds of prey, or is 'something odd' going on? I'm certainly glad there is a ready supply of large pigeons around for these birds - that kite looked a mean customer ( cue 'The Birds' theme music).
I blame the weather!
posted by ruth @ 12:05 AM
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