Maybe a week ago one of the Leghorns snuck out of the chicken house behind my back and got chased by Laddie. Yesterday it happened again, less dramatically. She ran around being annoying for a few minutes and then just walked through the gate I held open for her.
This morning she – I’m pretty sure it was the same bird – nearly got decapitated trying to dash through the door before I could close it.
Why does a chicken whose only wish once free is to rejoin the flock become obsessed with escape?
Scratch that – if raising chickens has taught me anything, it’s that asking “why are you doing that” is always a waste of time.
Two words: Chik’in dinner. Eat her before she become coyote chow.
It’s not just chickens that act strange by wanting to escape then wanting back in to their cages.
Six or seven years ago while at work, a call came in from the police that a tiger was out and laying on top of a car. The tiger was tame and part of an act by a stripper and had gotten out before. When the keeper and vet that were sent got to the scene, the keeper, having dealt with this cat before, simply walked over to the cat, told it to get off the car and into it’s cage. The tiger looked at the keeper, got off the car and went into it’s cage. It turned out that escaping and being led back to it’s cage was a regular event. Only this time a neighbor had found the cat on her car so she had called the police. The police, in turn had called the zoo where I worked. The moral of this story is… who the hell knows what goes through an animal’s mind.
Was it this site I read the following or another place?…can’t remember.
The story goes that baby elephants are caught for circuses and chained by the leg while in training. They aren’t strong enough to break free at the early age so eventually they accept the chains of bondage. As they grow older and bigger, they have accepted their life and a chain serves as a reminder but they don’t fight it. …………… So, one night at a circus, a fire broke out. 6 elephants were in a flimsy corral but not chained. None attempted to leave, they stood there, and died in the flames.
Some people aren’t much different I reckon.